OSPEDALI (hospitium, hospitale). – This name is given to those special charitable institutions intended for the care and accommodation of the sick and of those disabled from work, provided with special buildings and revenues for this purpose, when they are not supported by private charity. As charitable institutions, they are today for the most part established as juridical entities with their own endowment and assisted by the public authorities (v. CARITÀ, II. Storia della c).
There are some examples of them in classical antiquity; but they truly originated and developed through the exercise of Christian charity, stimulated by needs that arose especially in troubled times, when public provisions for the relief of poverty were insufficient and social conditions were consequently in profound decline. They could be organized on a stable basis only once the Church had obtained recognition of her freedom. In Byzantine antiquity they were designated by the name “nosocomium” if intended for the sick, “xenodochium” if they served foreigners, “ptochium” for the poor, “gerontocomium” for the old, as well as “brephotrophium” and “orphanotrophium.”
(courtesy of the Fatebenefratelli)
OSPEDALI – Hall of the Fatebenefratelli Hospital photographed in 1864. Frescoes by Viola and Diano (1764–76) depicting scenes from the life of s. Giovanni di Dio and medallions of the most illustrious Fatebenefratelli – Naples, S. Maria della Pace.
dangerous. When special epidemics later spread throughout the West, especially beginning in the 11th century, special hospitals also arose, governed by nurses living in community, such as the Antonines at Vienne (Provence); and, to stem the advance of leprosy, special leprosaria (v.) or lazarets (v.). With the advance of communal government and the organization of industries, it was the individual guilds that provided hospital care for their sick members and shelter for those unable to work; confraternities similarly provided for their enrolled members; and, in particular, it was the societies of the Battuti that promoted the construction of new, larger hospitals. One must not imagine institutions organized and complex like those of the modern age in those times (13th century and thereafter); medical assistance and care were nevertheless provided, either by specially appointed attendants or by compassionate persons, particularly women. In cities frequented for commerce or transit, hospitals were founded for the needy or for pilgrims of individual nations, as happened in Rome, following the example of what had already been done in the early Middle Ages; likewise, at obligatory crossing points, on rivers or in the mountains, special hospitaller orders took charge of the hospitals. With the Renaissance, especially in Italy, further progress can be observed: in the larger cities above all, many small hospitals were concentrated into a single institution, giving rise to more hygienic and imposing buildings (even monumental ones), with more suitable regulations and richer endowments; besides those of Rome, it is enough to recall those of Genoa, Milan, Venice, Florence, and Siena. Leprosaria, having become almost useless, were replaced in many places by hospitals for the incurable and by lazarets during epidemics. The hospital system then continued to improve in the succeeding age; the old hospitaller orders, which, as they declined, had transformed their institutions into benefices, to the much greater advantage of the individual commendatory holders than of the poor, were replaced, at least in many places, by special religious congregations (Fatebenefratelli, Camillians); from the 17th century onward, women too gradually began to devote themselves to caring for those admitted, organized in ways suited to their needs, until they likewise formed special congregations whose sole purpose was nursing care, or which combined it with the exercise of other religious activities.
Nowadays, hospitals are more properly nosocomia, sometimes limited solely to the treatment of particular diseases or special classes of patients (hospitals for children). Assistance to other classes of the needy, which during the Middle Ages had devolved upon hospitals, is today entrusted to special institutions for the care of infants, the elderly, orphans, and chronic patients. Convalescent homes and clinics that no longer possess a charitable character cannot, however, properly be counted among hospitals.