Main description (English)

The Apostolic Archive and Library preserve important documents regarding the wave of cholera which spread through the Italian peninsula and into the Papal States between 1835 and 1840, starting from the territory of Marche. The analysis of these sources and their comparison with previous historiographical arguments regarding the cholera epidemic of the 1830s allows us both to highlight the multiple socio-cultural, political-economic and religious effects of the spread of the disease and to identify the limits of intervention in the society of the time, including social inequalities connected to the spread of the disease and the resurfacing of ancient superstitions. In this regard, the Vatican documents and others preserved in the State Archives of Ancona offer significant witness to how the population and the institutions of Ancona experienced changes in daily life due to cholera, as well as to the inner and spiritual dimensions of living with the disease.