San Prisco nel 1837
San Prisco nel 1837
in
P.J. Imperato, G.H. Imperato & A. C. Imperato
The Second World Cholera Pandemic (1 826-1849) in the Kingdom of the towns of San Prisco and Forio d’Ischia
Estratto
«Journal of Community Health», vol. 40, n. 6, Springer, 2015
Il sottoscritto ha ricevuto da tempo questo studio di Pascal James Imperato e dei suoi figli Gavin e Austin, riguardante in misura maggiore Forio d’Ischia, ma anche San Prisco. Avevo pensato inizialmente ad una traduzione in italiano, che avrebbe comportato un gran lavoro per uno studioso non specialista come me, oltre a tantissimo tempo che non sono riuscito a trovare. Per questi motivi ho continuato a rimandare la divulgazione di questo lavoro di ricerca storica che merita di essere maggiormente conosciuto.
Con questo estratto presento la parte dello studio relativo a San Prisco, gli acknowledgements p. 1256, dove si segnalano riconoscimenti a molte persone di San Prisco, parenti, conoscenti degli autori, collaboratori, amici e tanti altri, fra cui il sottoscritto, che hanno fornito loro notizie, documenti vari che hanno consentito la realizzazione del loro interessante lavoro; e le references, ovvero la bibliografia a p. 1286.
Nel mio libro San Prisco dalla seconda restaurazione borbonica all’Unità d’Italia (1816-1860), basato su ricerche archivistiche effettuate negli anni 2009-2011, di prossima pubblicazione, ho trattato in parte gli argomenti pertinenti il medesimo studio degli Imperato e anticipo qualche passaggio del quarto capitolo.
Nell’agosto del 1836 l’intendente di Terra di Lavoro fu nominato Alter-Ego durante il cordone sanitario per impedire la diffusione del colera asiatico, che nel mese di settembre fu riconosciuto nella capitale, dove furono creati due ospedali per colerici e un cimitero presso l’antico sepolcro.
Nel corso del 1837 il colera colpì più duramente Napoli ed altre province del regno aumentando il numero delle vittime. Nella provincia di Terra di Lavoro il colera arrivò attraverso Monte S. Giovanni e Ceprano.
[ -1
Nel 1837 si diffuse nel regno di Napoli il colera e anche la comunità sanprischese fu colpita, così come avvenne per tantissimi altri luoghi. Si registrarono nell’anno 187 morti, mentre negli anni precedenti e in quelli successivi la media dei decessi era stata 80.
Da una lettera del sindaco Francesco Baja apprendiamo che sul territorio comunale vi era un camposanto dei soldati della città di Capua senza lapidi e nei periodi estivi con una gran quantità di cadaveri che emanavano esalazioni pestifere che facevano temere il diffondersi del morbo. Egli chiese all’intendente che si facesse una lapide di pietra viva a spese del Comune di Capua o di San Prisco e si prendessero appropriate misure per seppellire i sospetti di contagio in un luogo appartato in campagna. Da un altro documento del Comune di Capua apprendiamo che tale camposanto era situato in località grotta Centemola ed era un territorio affidato ai militari fin dal 1792.
The Second World Cholera Pandemic
(1826-1849) in the Kingdom of the Two
Sicilies with Special Reference to the Towns
of San Prisco and Forio d’Ischia
Pascal James Imperato, Gavin
H. Imperato & Austin C. Imperato
Journal of Community Health
The Publication for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
ISSN 0094-5145 Volume 40 Number 6
J Community Health (2015) 40:1224-1286 DOI 10.1007/s 10900-015-0089-y |
The Second World Cholera Pandemic (1826-1849)
in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies with Special Reference to the Towns of San Prisco and Forio d’Ischia
Pascal James Imperato1 • Gavin H. Imperato2 • Austin C. Imperato3
Published online: 16 September 2015
O Springer Science Business Media New York 2015
Abstract The second world cholera pandemic in Europe (1829-1849) was significant because of its geographic extent and the enormous numbers of people who fell ill or died. It was also singularly important because it demonstrated the profound levels of ignorance in both Europe and North America conceming the cause, modes of transmission, and treatment of cholera. This paper discusses the pandemic in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in great detai1. Even though medical and public health authorities in this kingdom had several years to prepare for cholera’s eventual arrival in 1836-1837, their elaborate preventive and therapeutic measures proved no more successful than elsewhere. Despite their efforts, it was estimated that there were 32,145 cases of cholera in the city of Naples by July 1837. Some 19,470 people were estimated to have died among the city’s then 357,283 population. This amounted to a cholera-specific mortality rate of 54.5/1000 population. Sicily was also severely affected by the epidemie. It was estimated that 69,000 people died of cholera in Sicily, 24,000 of them in the city of Palermo. Two rural towns in the kingdom, San Prisco and Forio d’Ischia, were selected for in-depth epidemiologic study. The former had a population of 3700 in 1836-1837, while the latter had a population of 5500.
E Pascal James Imperato pascal.imperato@downstate.edu
1. School of Public Health, State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, 450 Clarkson Avenue, MSC 43, Brooklyn, NY 11203, USA
2 Department of Medicine, Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, 500 University Drive, Hershey, PA 17033, USA
3 Georgetown University, 37th and O Street, NW, Washington, DC 20057, USA
The economic basis of both towns was agriculture. However, because Forio is located on an island, fishing and sea transport were then also important industries. Cholera appeared in San Prisco in July 1837 and quickly swept through the population. By August, the epidemic was essentially over. It is estimated that some 109 people died from cholera in San Prisco for a disease specific mortality rate of 29.5/1000 population. The age range of those who died from cholera was 1 to 90 years. The majority of deaths (60.6 %) were among women. The first cases of cholera appeared in Forio d’Ischia in June 1837. The epidemic then peaked in July. It is estimated that approximately 316 people died from cholera in Forio out of a population of 5500. This resulted in a cholera-specific mortality rate of 57.5/1000 population. Among the first 42 fatal cases in whom the disease was documented on their death certificates, ages ranged from 15 to 88 years. The mean age was 52.4 years. The majority of deaths (57.1 %) were among women. We reached beyond the statistics of this epidemie by presenting an in-depth study of the first person to die from cholera in Forio d’Ischia, Nicola Antonio Insante. By focusing on him, we were able to develop a broad account of the social and economie consequences of his death on his family. At the same time, our research demonstrated the resiliency of his immediate and distant descendants. Similarly, we discuss the D’Ambra and Scola families of Forio d’Ischia, and the Caruso and Valenziano families of San Prisco, among whom a number died from cholera in 1837.
Keywords Second world cholera pandemic • Cholera in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies • Cholera in San Prisco • Cholera in Forio d’Ischia • Nicola Insante • Descendants of the 1837 cholera pandemic victims
Introduction
The second world cholera pandemic, like the first one (1817-1823), arose in Bengal, India. Its importance was due not only to the extent of its geographic spread, but to other issues which arose as it invaded Europe and North America. It demonstrated the serious inadequacies of western medicine’ s therapeutic capabilities and the futility of the public health measures ìmplemented to contain its spread. Cholera carried a high morbidity and mortality, and coupled with quarantine efforts to contain it, caused significant social, political, and economic disruptions [ I ].
Beginning in 1826 in the Ganges River Delta of Bengal, this pandemic quickly moved into Russia by 1827. From there, it was eventually imported into Poland in 1831 by Russian soldiers sent into put down a revolt. It quickly spread the same year to Berlin, Vienna, England, and Wales. By 1832, it had infected London, Ireland, and France. The various sanitary barriers erected across Europe and enforced by well-armed military failed to halt its spread. Similarly, quarantine measures also failed.
In 1832, Irish immigrants carried cholera into Canada, where outbreaks quickly developed in Quebec and Montreal. Shortly thereafter, on 26 June, cholera was identified in Irish immigrants in New York City [2]. Panic immediately set in as soon as word got out that cholera was in the city. This resulted in a mass exodus of affluent people to areas believed unassailable by the disease.
It was not long before people observed that the spread of cholera was not always rapid and inexorable. Witness the six-year period that elapsed between its appearance in Moscow in 1830 and its reaching the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in southern Italy in 1836-1837. They also observed that there were periods of explosive epidemics followed by others when few or no cases occurred. This cycle of disease absence followed by recrudescence became a well established phenomenon. Low prevalence and disease-free periods varied in length as was the case when recurrences occurred in Poland and Prussia in 1837, after a period of several years. Recrudescences occurred in other parts of Europe and the Americas as well as in other parts of the world. Thus, the second world cholera pandemic, unlike its predecessor, was global in its geographic reach, and temporally very prolonged.
Springer |
During the second pandemic, there was a widespread belief that cholera arose among the morally unfit, and in circumstances characterized by poverty, filth, misery, and vice. This “localist” belief was strengthened by the fact that in many parts of Europe and North America, the highest morbidity and mortality rates occurred among day laborers, paupers, beggars, artisans, sailors, boatmen, fishermen, and small traders. Thus, the wealthier levels of society perceived that they were invulnerable to the disease since they were not in proximity to the miasmas that arose from filth rotting in the streets. In point of fact, the poor were more vulnerable to cholera because of their proximity to unsafe local water supplies, a fact that became more apparent during later pandemics [3]. The poor for their part often thought that the wealthy had in some way supposedly contaminated their water supplies. Subsequent pandemics in which both rich and poor alike were affected altered causation beliefs in miasmas so prominent in the second world cholera pandemic [4].
Cholera and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
Cholera arrived in the city of Naples, the capital of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, on 2 October 1836. It was to remain there for slightly more than a year until 24 October 1837. By the time the epidemic ceased, it is estimated that there were 32,145 cases and 19,470 deaths in the city. This represented a mortality rate of 65 % and 54.5 deaths per 1000 population among Naples’ 357,283 inhabitants [5].
An understanding of the second world cholera pandemic in southern Italy is aided by a brief overview of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, its history, and that of the political units that preceded it. The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which occupied the lower half of the Italian peninsula and Sicily, was ruled by an autocratic Spanish Bourbon monarchy which, like previous regimes in this area of Italy, kept most of the population hostage to both ignorance and poverty.
This region of Italy carne under direct Spanish rule in 1504, and the kings of Spain ruled through viceroys. Consequently, southern Italy and Sicily (for varying periods) were in effect European colonies of Spain. This Spanish colonial status continued for two centuries, and was largely characterized by political repression and economie exploitation. The War of the Spanish Succession (1700-1715) resulted in the conquest of the area by the Austrians in 1707. They remained in control of southern Italy for 27 years, until the War of the Polish Succession (1733-1738) resulted in the creation of the Kingdom of Naples. Don Carlos, infante of Spain and son of King Philip V, defeated the Austrians at Bitonto in 1734, and became King Charles VII of the Kingdom of Naples. After a 25-year reign, he succeeded to the Spanish throne as King Charles III and abdicated the throne of the Kingdom of Naples in favor of his young son who became Ferdinand IV [6]
Under Ferdinand, most in the kingdom continued to live in degrading poverty while the aristocracy and clergy led privileged lives. Forty years after becoming king (1799), Ferdinand and his family were forced to flee from Naples to Palermo when French forces arrived and supported the new Parthenopean Republic. Less than a year later, however, Ferdinand was restored by popular support and the military intervention of a British fleet under Horatio Nelson [6].
Soon thereafter, in 1806, Napoleon’s forces under his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, invaded the Kingdom of Naples, and Ferdinand and his family again fled to Palermo in Sicily. Joseph Bonaparte ruled as king until 1808, when he became King of Spain. Napoleon then gave the Kingdom of Naples to his brother-in-law, Joachim Murat, who ruled as king until 1815. Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo in 1815 and Murat’s at Tolentino by the Austrians effectively ended French domination of the Kingdom of Naples. During these years, referred to by Italians as the Decennio, the French abolished feudalism, confiscated ecclesiastical properties and the land holdings of the aristocracy, promoted the development of a middle class, created civil vital records, and revamped the army and the navy. Ferdinand was restored for a second time in 1815, and became Ferdinand I, King of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, as the Kingdom of Naples was now called under the terms of the Congress of Vienna [6].
At the time of the 1836-1837 cholera epidemic, Ferdinand I’s grandson, Ferdinand II, was king. Having become king in 1830, he and his government made extensive and elaborate administrative and medical preparations for the possible arrival of cholera in the kingdom.
Efforts to Prevent and Treat Cholera
Francesco Leoni has detailed the administrative and medical structures created by the Bourbon government to both prevent the disease from entering the kingdom, to contain its spread, to manage cases, and to disinfect houses occupied by those with cholera. These included the creation of a Supreme Council of Health with sweeping powers to formulate policies concerning quarantines, sanitary cordons, therapeutic regimens for cholera patients, disinfection of presumed contaminated environments, and the establishment of special hospitals or portions of hospitals for caring for the ili [7]. A separate Supreme Council of Health was also created in Sicily [8].
Most preventive and therapeutic efforts were concentrated in Naples and other large towns and cities where a long history of civil unrest and rebellion always posed potential threats to the Bourbon monarchy. The highest priority was given to protecting the royal family, and for this purpose a strict sanitary cordon was thrown up around the Royal Palace in the city of Naples [7]. High levels of protection were also given to the military and the police which were essential for maintaining the king and his government in power.
Dr. Salvatore De Renzi, who was from Avellino, was Director of the Hospital of Santa Maria di Loreto in Naples. He and other leading physicians participated in elaborating guidelines for the medical management of cases of cholera by degree of severity. Most of the therapeutic recommendations were those that had already been widely used in other parts of Europe. Medical leaders in Naples were aware of all the preventive and therapeutic measures that had been implemented for cholera over the four-year period as it had spread through Europe. Not surprisingly, they too used calomel, opiates, a variety of substances applied externally to the abdomen, purgatives, mercury, and blood letting. However, De Renzi and his colleagues experimented with what became known as an anti-choleric wine [7]. This mixture, derived in part from a herbal preparation, was administered to patients at De Renzi’s Hospital of Santa Maria di Loreto, where he claimed it produced excellent therapeutic results [7]. De Renzi, like other institutional directors and medical practitioners, was required to report all cases of cholera to the government. Wealthy families tended not to report cases, while the poor often reported as cases people who had died of other causes in the interests of obtaining a free burial [5].
The elaborate preventive and therapeutic plans of the government proved largely futile. Cholera raged through the kingdom. Disinfection efforts at the homes of victims, such as burning all furnishings or treating houses with chlorine or sulphur gases, were resisted, and only encouraged people to hide cases and deaths. Despite the deficiencies of case and death reporting, data for the city of Naples and other large cities and towns in the kingdom were meticulously gathered. In her exhaustive study of data for Naples, Messina was able to analyze cases and deaths for a number of towns near Naples, and especially for Naples itself. She was also able to analyze data for several of the kingdom’s provinces, recognizing that there were significant flaws in the available information. In essence, the epidemic in the city of Naples extended from 2 October 1836 to 8 March 1837 and from 13 April 1837 to 24 October 1837, with a five-week lull between the two acute phases [5].
The epidemic was equally severe in Sicily where 69,000 people died, 24,000 of them in Palermo alone [8]. Given the deficiencies in case and death reporting, it is likely that these figures are conservative. Adding to the problem of counting cases was that of the general absence of cause of death recording on civil death certificates. Prior to the French occupation of the Kingdom of Naples, death, birth, and marriage registries were maintained by the church. One of the major Napoleonic reforms was the establishment of civil vital records in all cities and towns. These were continued by King Ferdinand I following his restoration in 1815. However, causes of death were not generally recorded in these civil records, except in cases of suicide or homicide. As Messina has noted, deaths from cholera were often assumed to have occurred at times of epidemics. Thus, mortality data for the 1836-1837 epidemic are often inferential in nature [5].
There were of course other sources for morbidity and mortality data such as those from hospitals. Based on his own experience at the Hospital of Santa Maria di Loreto, De Renzi wrote a detailed account of the 1836-1837 cholera epidemic. He estimated that the total number of cases in the city of Naples was on the order of 30,000 by the end of July 1837. Undercounting of cases occurred both because the government tried to minimize the number for political reasons, and because mild cases went unreported. Similarly, the government initially made a concerted effort to minimize the number of deaths out of concerns for possible civil disorder and even outright rebellion [5].
A detailed examination of cholera data from two towns in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies illustrates the inconsistencies in mortality recording. These available data also demonstrate the necessity for deducing the epidemic curves based on comparisons with pre- and post-cholera mortality levels. This approach is similar to that currently used in tracking influenza epidemic curves. Here, pneumonia mortality levels are used to infer the level of influenza cases 2 weeks previously [9].
Cholera data were examined for San Prisco and Forio d’Ischia. The former was then a relatively small town situated between the larger towns of Capua and Caserta to the northwest of Naples, then the capital of the kingdom. Forio was a much larger town situated on the west coast of the volcanic island of Ischia in the Bay Naples (Fig. 1).
Vital Records Sources
There are two major sources of historical vital records for towns in southern Italy. The earliest are church records which were generally initiated in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries following the Council of Trent. Many of these records are currently located in the churches where they were originally created or else have been moved to diocesan archives. A few are currently in the regional holdings of Italy’s Archivio di Stato (state archives). The information for births, deaths, and marriages in these ecclesiastical records is often very summary in nature.
Following the Napoleonic conquest of the Kingdom of Naples in 1806, government vital records systems were instituted in towns throughout the kingdom. The start date for these records varies from one town to another.
Fig. 1 Location of the towns of San Prisco and Forio d’Ischia in Italy (Drawn by Frank Fasano)
However, in general, many began around 1809 and 1810. At the same time, ecclesiastical records continued to be created by churches.
With the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in 1815, King Ferdinand I and his successore continued the system of municipal vital records. Over the course of the ensuing century, the basic forms used for registering births, deaths, and marriages physically changed several times with concurrent changes in the information included in them. These changes continued after the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies formally became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. However, changes in vital record forms, reflecting standardization throughout Italy, were not uniformly implemented until a few years following Italian unification.
From their inception in the towns of San Prisco and Forio d’Ischia in 1810 and 1809 respectively, two copies of municipal vital records were created. One copy was kept by the vital records officer in the town hall, and another was respectively sent to the Tribunale in Capua or Naples. Most of the latter for the nineteenth century are now in local collections of the Archivio di Stato, while the former are archived in a town’s vital records office. The microfilms and digitized copies of these municipal vital records created by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints during the past few decades reflect the original Tribunale holdings. Over time, portions of records have been lost from both local vital records offices and Tribunale holdings as well as from ecclesiastical archives.
purpose of this and other studies, we have carefully examined both church and municipal vital records in situ in both towns. In addition, we have studied the Tribunale holdings in the Archivio di Stato in Caserta, Italy. The municipal vital records for San Prisco for the period 1810-1929 were microfilmed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We carefully studied these for several years at the church’s Family History Center in Plainview, New York. These microfilm copies were produced from records in the Tribunale holdings of the Archivio di Stato in Caserta. More recently, the church digitized the Tribunale copies of vital records for the town of Forio d’Ischia for the period 1809-1915 from the Archivio di Stato holdings in Naples. We have examined these records in detail online through www.Familysearch. org,
Reading ecclesiastical records requires a working knowledge of Latin. One of us (PII) possesses this ability, having studied Latin for 4 years. We were also greatly aided by Eleanor M. Imperato (wife and mother), who studied Latin for 7 years. The authors are reasonably fluent in Italian, and were greatly aided by Eleanor M. Imperato, who is a fluent Italian speaker.
Data Collection and Analysis
This study began with the observation that there was a dramatic increase in deaths in both towns in 1837. These increases occurred in San Prisco in July and in Forio d’Ischia in June and July. We were already familiar with the second world cholera pandemic, and at the outset knew that this was the probable cause of these dramatic spikes in mortality.
San Prisco was and is a much smaller town than Forio d’Ischia, and its historical vital records, both ecclesiastical and municipal, are locally well organized. Similarly, the microfilmed municipal records are well organized with deaths (morti) comprising an easily identifiable category. These death certificates are chronologically organized by year and by date within a given year. For some early nineteenth century years, indices were created. However, these were generally organized alphabetically by first name and not by surname. An additional challenge in all vital records of this era is in deciphering the calligraphy of some vital records officials as well as the orthography they used for personal names and surnames.
vital records for Forio present additional challenges. In the Forio vital records office, birth, death, and marriage records are separately bound in annual volumes and stored on shelves. Within each volume, certificates are chronologically filed by date. By comparison, the Tribunale records on file in the Archivio di Stato in Naples, and digitized by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, are not so consistently organized. Concerning death records, for certain years such as 1821 and 1823-1836, they are filed under the category Diversi (diverse documents). However, within the Diversi category, usually reserved for a variety of other types of documents, death certificates were annually filed chronologically under a Morti section. In some years, an index is also included, organized alphabetically by first name.
The Tribunale death certificates for Forio for 1837, the year of the cholera epidemie, are separately listed under Morti and not submerged in the Diversi section. However, only death certificates from the period 1 January-15 October are included. The remaining certificates for the last two-and-a-half months of the year are missing. Also, the actual death certificates for 2-18 July are missing. These deficiencies are partially compensated for by the fact that within the 1837 Diversi section there is an impressive 26-page alphabetical listing of deaths by first names for 1837. This document lists the victims’ names, paternity, and day and month of death. In addition, the calligraphy in this document is of superior quality making for easy reading of its content.
Stillbirths and the deaths of Forio residents outside of the town were not included in this study given their lack of relevance to the 1837 cholera epidemie in Forio. Overall, their numbers for all years in this general period were small.
To the south of Forio is Panza, which historically was a hamlet. While records for Panza were managed by the vital records officer of Forio, they were kept separate and apart, and not comingled with those of Forio. The population of Panza in the early nineteenth century was very small, and only a few births and deaths were annually reported. For the purposes of this study, mortality data for Panza were not included.
Calculating Cholera-Specific Mortality Rates
Causes of death were not generally recorded. As discussed below, there was an exception to this practice when the vital records official for Forio recorded cholera or suspected cholera on the death certificates for the first 42 cases. Calculating the total or crude mortality rates for 1837 for San Prisco and Forio was relatively easy. These rates simply consist of the total annual number expressed as deaths per 1000 population. However, we also wished to calculate cholera-specific mortality rates for the two towns for 1837. This was achieved by first averaging the annual number of deaths for years both before and after 1837 for each town. For San Prisco, this was 74, and for Forio it was 130 deaths. These numbers were then respectively subtracted from the total number of 1837 deaths for San Prisco and Forio. This resulted in an approximate number of excess deaths, assumed to be due to cholera.
Thus, while the total number of deaths for 1837 in San Prisco was 183, subtracting the average of 74 annual deaths for other adjacent years produced 109 probable deaths due to cholera. For Forio, the average number of deaths for years before and after 1837 was 130. This number, when subtracted from the total number of 446 deaths for 1837, resulted in 316 probable deaths due to cholera. Once these approximate numbers were calculated, it was possible to determine the disease-specific mortality for cholera for each town based on its 1837 population.
These calculations respectively resulted in crude mortality rates of 49.5/1000 and 81.1/1000 for San Prisco and Forio respectively, and cholera-specific mortality rates of 29.5/1000 and 57.5/1000 respectively.
Cholera in San Prisco
San Prisco today is now a town of some 10,000 people that lies to the northwest of Naples and to the west of Caserta in the current Province of Campania. Originally a hamlet of the town of Capua to the west, the town lies at the foot of Mount Tifata, an important peak in the Apennine range of mountains [ 10, 11]. In the early sixteenth century, the town had a population of some 300 people. However, by 1800, this population had grown to 2400 people [12].
The economy of San Prisco was based on agriculture, especially the cultivation of olives, grains, and grapes. During the nineteenth century, San Prisco was located in the Province of Terra di Lavoro, a name that signifies “fruitful land.” This province was so called because it was a highly productive agricultural area. However, the economy of the town also greatly benefited from the construction of the nearby Royal Palace at Caserta by King Charles VII (later King Charles III of Spain) between 1752 and 1774.
Throughout most of its existence, the town was called Santo Prisco. However, toward the latter half of the nineteenth century, the name Santo was truncated in official records to San, which also carne into popular use. Interestingly, late nineteenth century immigrants to the United States from the town and their children continued to refer to it as Santo Prisco even into the 1960s (Fig. 2).
At the time of the 1836-1837 cholera epidemic, there were about 3700 people living in San Prisco. The average number of deaths annually ranged between 65 and 86 in the years before and after the epidemic. The annual mortality rate reflected these absolute numbers, ranging from 17.8/ 1000 population in 1835 to 23.2/1000 population in 1838 (Table 1).
Fig. 2 The center of San Prisco, 2008
In 1837, cholera arrived in San Prisco. The total number of annual deaths that year reached 183. This was more than double the number in any of the other years between 1833 and 1838. This amounted to a crude mortality rate for 1837 of 49.5/1000 population, more than double that of any of the comparison years. The approximate cholera-specific mortality rate was 29.5/1000 population. This choleraspecific mortality rate of 29.5/1000 population was much lower than the cholera-specific mortality rate of 54.5/1000 population reported for the same time period in the city of Naples [5].
Some sources give the annual number of deaths in San Prisco for 1837 as 187. However, we have used the 183 figure as it reflects the number of death certificates that appear in the Registro di Morti for that year. More significant than this small disparity in the total number of deaths is the distribution of deaths by month. For eleven of the twelve months of 1837, the number of deaths in San Prisco ranged from two to fifteen per month. However, in July, when cholera appeared in the town, the total number of deaths for that month dramatically rose to 99 (Table 2).
This is the month that other town records indicate that cholera appeared. As shown in Table 3, the epidemic in San Prisco began suddenly, the second week of July, and continued for the remainder of the month. Thirty-six people died during the third week of July alone, and 31 during the remainder of the month. A total of 99 people died in July in the town, more than the total number who annually died in
1230 |
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J Community Health (2015) 40:1224-1286 |
Table 1 Comparative total annual registered deaths and crude mortality rates, |
|
|
|
|
Year |
Population |
Total number of annual deaths |
Crude mortality rate per 1000 population |
|
1833 |
3700 |
70 |
18.9 |
|
1833-1843, Town of San |
|
|
|
|
Prisco, Province of Terra di |
1834 |
3700 |
82 |
22.5 |
Lavoro, Kingdom of the Two |
1835 |
3700 |
66 |
17.8 |
Sicilies |
1836 |
3700 |
65 |
17.5 |
|
1837a |
3700 |
183 |
49.5 |
|
1838 |
3700 |
86 |
23.2 |
The population of San Prisco was about 3700 during the above years
Data derived from the Atti dello Stato Civile. Registri degli Atti di Morte, 1833-1838. Comune di San Prisco, Provincia di Terra di Lavoro, Regno delle Due Sicilie
Table 2 Total registered deaths, by month, Town of San Prisco, Province of Terra di Lavoro, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, 1837 |
a The calculated cholera-specific mortality rate was 29.5/1000 per population based on an estimated 109 deaths from the disease
Month Number of deaths
January O
February 3
March 12
Aprii 4
May 6
June 13
July 99
August 13
September 8
October 2
November 10
December 12
Total 183
Data derived from the Atti dello Stato Civile. Registro degli Atti di Morte, 1837. Comune di San Prisco, Provincia di Terra di Lavoro, Regno delle Due Sicilie
Table 3 Deaths during the month of July 1837 by week, Town of
San Prisco, Province of Terra di Lavoro, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
Week Number of deaths
July 1-7 8
July 8-14 24
July 15-21 36
July 22-29 26
July 30-31a 5
Total 99
Data derived from the Atti dello Stato Civile. Registro degli Atti di Morte, 1837. Comune di San Prisco, Provincia di Terra di Lavoro, Regno delle Due Sicilie
a Data are only for the last 2 days of July
the years before and after 1837. By August, the epidemic had essentially run its course because in that month, only 13 people died.
A dose examination of all the death certificates for San Prisco revealed that in no case was any cause of death listed, including cholera or suspected cholera. There is nothing exceptional about this finding because in most instances at this time and for decades before and afterwards, causes of death were generally not recorded on death certificates. There are no data on the number of cholera cases that occurred in San Prisco during the epidemic. Mild cases could have been overlooked, even by the victims themselves, and moderately severe cases may not have been reported to the authorities. As Messina has pointed out, data for deaths from cholera during this epidemic are to a great extent inferential for many localities, and that certainly holds true for San Prisco [5].
One of those who succumbed to cholera in San Prisco at the height of the epidemic on 17 July 1837 was Alessandro Caruso, who was 80 years of age. He was a retired gardener and shop owner. He was respectively a fourth patemal great-grandfather of the senior author, PJI, and a fifth paternal great-grandfather of GHI and ACI. Alessandro was the son of Andrea Caruso and Lucia Fiorillo, who lived in the eighteenth century. He was also the father of Prisco Caruso (1776-1828), grandfather of Antonio Caruso (1805-1850), and great-grandfather to Concetta Caruso (1830-1910). She married Clement Imperato (1840-1923) in 1863, and their second son, Pasquale Imperato (1869-1942) was respectively the grandfather and greatgrandfather of the authors, PJI, GHI, and ACI [13].
Another probable victim of the epidemic was Donna Caterina Valenziano (1757-21 July 1837). She was the daughter of Don Gabriele Valenziano (1724-21 October 1761) and Donna Teresa de Angelis (1728-28 August 1778). Don Gabriele Valenziano was a Spanish SubLieutenant in the Royal Farnese Infantry Regiment, and posted at nearby Capua. He later became a Lieutenant in the Royal Cavalry at Capua. He was brought into the then Kingdom of Naples by the Spanish Bourbon King Charles VII, later King Charles III of Spain. He married Donna de Angelis in 1754. She carne from one of San Prisco’s leading families. Her brothers, Bartolomeo de Angelis, a druggist, and Alessandro de Angelis, paid her dowry [14].
Donna Caterina Valenziano was born in 1757 into San Prisco’ s upper socio-economic stratum. She eventually married Don Gabriele Boccardi (b. 1743), the son of Don Saverio Boccardi (b. 1700), a physician and one of the wealthiest men in the town, who was originally from nearby Capua. Donna Caterina Valenziano’s older brother, Don Francesco Valenziano (1753-1807), was respectively a fourth great-grandfather of the senior author, and a fifth great-grandfather of GHI and ACI. Thus, she was respectively a fifth and a sixth great-aunt of the authors. If Donna Caterina Valenziano did indeed die from cholera, her death would indicate that the disease also affected even the wealthiest residents of the town. For at the time of her death, she was a major property owner in San Prisco [ 4].
As shown in Table 4, the mean age of those who died in the month of July 1837 in San Prisco was 41.5 years. The ages of those who died ranged from 1 to 90 years of age. The majority of deaths (60.6 %) occurred among women. Thus, there were 1.5 female deaths for every male one.
There are a few caveats concerning the age data for San Prisco. Municipal clerks often recorded the ages of those who died to a nearest round number, such as 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, etc. This was because most people, except for those from the higher socio-economic levels, were often unsure of their precise ages or dates of birth. Children who died young were often listed as infants, without a precise age being provided. The data in Table 4 also reflect a decision by the vital records official to assign 1 year of age to the seven children who died during the month of July, regardless of their actual age.
Prior to the cholera epidemic of 1836-1837, most of the dead were buried beneath the churches. In San Prisco, these burials usually took piace in the crypts of the Church of Santa Matrona, referred to as the town’s “mother church.” However, because of the large number of deaths from
Table 4 Demographic characteristics of the ninety-nine people who died in the month of July 1837, Town of San Prisco, Province of Terra di Lavoro, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
Mean age (years) |
41.5 |
|
|
Age of oldest (years) |
90 |
|
|
Age of youngest (years) |
1 |
|
|
Number of males |
39 |
(39.4 |
%) |
Number of females |
60 |
(60.6 |
%) |
Seven infants were counted as 1 year of age each, as no precise age was given for them
Data derived from the Atti dello Stato Civile. Registro degli Atti di Morte, 1837. Comune di San Prisco, Provincia di Terra di Lavoro, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies cholera, victims were soon buried in cemeteries created for this purpose. An additional reason for burying cholera victims in cemeteries was to prevent spread of the disease. Following the cholera epidemic of 1836-1837, burial in cemeteries became increasingly common in southern Italy.
Burial customs in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies were complex and encompassed an initial interment in a shallow grave, usually beneath a church. This was followed a few years later by disinterment, the scraping of residual tissues from the skeleton, and the placement of the bones in a niche or a common ossuary. There were many variations to these rites, including replacement of clothing on the dead after exhumation. Even today in southern Italy, the dead are placed in shallow graves in cemeteries for about 2 years. Thereafter, the remains are removed and cleaned of residual tissues. The bones are then placed in a family niche or else placed in a common ossuary. The beliefs upon which this custom of secondary burial is based are very complex, and have been described by Fornaciari, Giuffra, and Pezzini [15].
Well before the cholera epidemie of 1836-1837, the Supreme Magistrate of Health for the city of Naples became extremely concerned about the unhygienic nature of secondary burials because of the exposure of people to putrefaction [ 15]. Once cholera arrived in the kingdom, the Supreme Council of Health ordered that the dead be buried in permanent graves in cemeteries. This led to the creation of cemeteries in many locations. However, popular belief in the necessity of exhumation after a time and reburial of the bones of the deceased has continued to this present day.
Cholera in Forio d’Ischia
Ischia is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea that lies some 19 miles from the city of Naples. It has a roughly rectangular shape, and is approximately six miles east to west and four miles north to south. It has a 24-mile coastline, and because it is of volcanic origins is extremely mountainous. The highest peak is Mount Epomeo, which is currently dormant. Two severe earthquakes occurred in Ischia in 1881 and 1883. Centered in the town of Casamicciola, both caused extensive damage. However, the earthquake of 28 July 1883 was the most severe in historical memory. It virtually destroyed the town of Casamicciola, known even then for its thermal baths, and also affected the nearby town of Forio where 345 people died. In Casamicciola, 1784 people died, while the total number of deaths for the five towns on the island affected by this earthquake was 2313. After Casamicciola, Forio suffered the greatest loss of life [16, 17].
Forio occupies the most western portion of the island of Ischia. Historically, its economy was based on agriculture,
Acknowledgments The research for this article spanned many years and was made possible by the assistance and support of many people and institutions. We would like to express our thanks to all of them. Eleanor M. Imperato, wife and mother, extensively participated in the research upon which this communication is based. She meticulously translated a number of Latin and Italian language documents into English, researched vital records in Italy at Capua, Forio, Portici and San Prisco, and provided much appreciated encouragement and support, for which we are very grateful. We are also thankful for the support and assistance of Alison M. Imperato, daughter and sibling, during the long period of time that the research for this article was being undertaken. We would like to express our sincere thanks to our relatives in Italy, some of whom are now deceased. These include: the late Carmelina Pescione Maiella, the late Domenico, Giovanni, and Marianna Ulini, the late Dr. Florindo Imparato, the late Dr. Mario Imparato, the late Matrona Imparato Trepiccione, and the late Professor Agostino Stellato, a former Mayor of San Prisco. We are very grateful to our cousin, Giuseppe Imparato, who greatly assisted us with researching the vital records of San Prisco, and for conducting independent research on our behalf. Without his help, this article would not have been possible. We wish to thank our cousins, Anna Maria Ulini, Antonio Ercolano, and Anna Ulini of San Prisco, who have assisted us over many years. In San Prisco, we are grateful to our relatives Avvocato Attilio Imparato and Ida Imparato Stellato, and in
United States to our late cousins, Sister Antoinette Casertano, Sister Martha Casertano, and Mother Lina Trepiccione. We wish to acknowledge the first telling of some of this history by our late father and grandfather, James A. Imperato, and all the information that was provided over the years by his brothers and sisters, all now deceased. These include Freeman P. Imperato, RA, Pasquale Joseph Imperato, BS, MD, Alfred A. Imperato, BS, MA, MD, Joseph P. Imperato, LLD, Louis G. Imperato, LLD, LLM, Carne Imperato Ragusa, Amelia Imperato Barracca Wise, and Marianne Imperato Smith, BA, MA. Our colleague and friend, Dott. Luigi Russo, made possible the uncovering of very valuable genealogical information in several archival sources. These include ecclesiastical vital records in three churches in San Prisco: Santa Matrona, Santa Maria di Constantinopoli, and Santa Maria Di Loreto. He also extensively researched the baptismal and death records in the Basilica of San Ciro in Portici and those in the Archivio della Diocesi di Caserta. He diligently examined records in the Biblioteca of the Museo Provinciale Campano in Capua and in the Archivio Communale di Capua. Professor Russo also carefully conducted extensive research in the Archivio di Stato in Caserta, and in the Archivio Storico della ex Real Casa Santa dell’Annunziata. Professor Russo, a highly esteemed historian and leading authority on the history of San Prisco, is a meticulous scholar who brought to his research great patience, diligence, and superb analytical insights for which we are deeply appreciative. In San Prisco, we are also grateful to Carlo Artiere for his assistance in researching the archives of the Archivio di Stato in Caserta. For access and help with church vital records, we are thankful to the Reverend Vincenzo Di Lillo, Pastor of the Church of Santa Matrona, and to the Reverend Giuseppe Cappabianca, Pastor of the Church of Santa Maria di Constantinopoli. We also wish to thank Professore Francesco Cioccola, Direttore della Biblioteca e Archivio Storico, Arcidiocesi di Capua. In Forio d’Ischia, we were greatly aided by our cousin, Anna Insante Mattera, who arranged for us to examine the town’s civil vital records extending back to 1809. We wish to thank the Municipal officials of Forio d’Ischia who assisted us in researching these records. We are very grateful to the late Reverend Monsignor Michele Romano, Pastor of the Church of San Sebastiano and the Basilica of Santa Maria di Loreto, who greatly assisted us with researching and translating ecclesiastical vital records of the Insante and Scola families from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries. We wish to thank Reverend Monsignor Giuseppe Regine, Pastor of the Church of San Vito, who assisted us with nineteenth century vital records on the Scola family. Our late uncle, Giuseppe Insante and his late wife, Concetta Veccia Insante, were of enormous help to us, for which we are very grateful. Their daughter, Anna Insante Mattera, and her husband, Salvatore Mattera, were of enormous help to us in our research. We wish to thank all of our cousins on the island of Ischia who helped us in many ways. These include the late Rosetta Calise Verde and the late Davide Calise. We are grateful to our cousins, Arma Calise Patalano, Paola Calise Tufano, the late Ventura (Regina) Calise Schiano and her late husband, Giovan Giuseppe Schiano, and Vincenzo Calise. We are very grateful to our cousin, Pietro Paolo Calise, who not only hosted us on our visits to Ischia, but who also assisted us in our research. We wish to express our thanks to our cousin, Captain Agostino Mazzella, who greatly assisted us. We are very appreciative of the help and interest of our cousin in Argentina, Ana Maria Insante de Olivan, and her late husband, Feliciano Olivan. In the United States, we wish to express enormous gratitude to the late Maria Libera Insante Verde (1868-1956), who started us on this quest. Her knowledge of both contemporary and previous family history was nothing less than encyclopedic both in terms of scope and depth. What she had not experienced directly was meticulously preserved in a prodigious memory of accounts told to her by members of older generations. She not only knew the names of Insante and Scola ancestors, but also the major events that had taken piace in their lives. Her memory greatly
impressed everyone who knew her, even her priest, the late Reverend Domenick Adessa, who ministered to her in later years. He continuously marveled that she could recite the entire mass in Latin. We are very grateful to the late Madalynne Marguerite Insante Imperato (1906-1970), mother and grandmother, who throughout her life had an intense interest in her family history. This in part was fostered by her aunt, Maria Libera Insante Verde, who raised her. Both women maintained dose contacts with a geographically dispersed group of relatives over many years. Madalynne Marguerite Insante Imperato was extremely knowledgeable about her Insante, Scola, and D’Ambra relatives, and could effortlessly draw genealogic charts which many years later we found to be highly accurate. Our knowledge of the D’Ambra family was enriched by Marianna D’Ambra Insante (1884-1968), grandmother and great-grandmother. Highly observant and also gifted with a prodigious memory, she could recount with great clarity, events that had occurred even before her own birth but which had been handed down to her through oral tradition. Our knowledge of the D’Ambra family was greatly enhanced by the late Emmanuela D’Ambra Sorrentino (1920-2011). She was the daughter of Francesco D’Ambra (1888-1968) and Angela Maria Di Maio (1894-1969). She was also a first cousin and very dose friend of Madalynne Marguerite Insante Imperato (1906-1970). Emmanuela D’Ambra Sorrentino’s parents traveled back to Italy in 1922 when she was 18 months of age. She remained in Forio until 1938 when she returned to the United States. As a result of her stay, she became very familiar with Forio and the D’Ambra family in a way that would not have been possible had she remained in the United States. She was very generous with her assistance in our researching details about the D’Ambra family, for which we are very grateful. We wish to sincerely thank her son, Dr. Frani( Sorrentino, and her daughter, Lucy Conti, who were very supportive of our research, and who provided us with very valuable information. Researching the Scola family proved especially challenging because their numbers rapidly expanded once they immigrated to the United States. From a core of several cousins who left Italy, this family grew into a large kinship group numbering several hundred and dispersed in Canton, Ohio, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Vineland, New Jersey, Providence, Rhode Island, and New York City. Despite this dispersion, they maintained fairly dose contacts for the first half-century following immigration. Thereafter, their contacts diminished as the immigrant generation passed away. While many immigrants from Ischia settled in Brooklyn, and especially in the Coney Island and South Brooklyn areas, others went to San Pedro, California, particularly those who were fishermen. Our cousin, Bernard Vincent Scola, of Providence, Rhode Island, spent many years meticulously tracing our Scola ancestors and their descendants. This was an enormous undertaking at which he was highly successful. We are very grateful to him for generously sharing the results of his research, and for being such a congenial and supportive fellow researcher for dose to 30 years. We also wish to sincerely thank him for providing us with valuable family histories which enabled us to create a complete account of the Scola family and its many members. We wish to sincerely thank our cousin, Mary Ann Loreta Sorrentino, who was of great assistance to us in verifying the accuracy of several Scola lineages. She also graciously reviewed a number of the genealogic charts, and made very helpful suggestions about them. Other Scola descendants generously shared their memories of their branches of the family. These include Dolly Massari of Philadelphia, a descendant of Restituta Scola Impagliazzo (1844-1922) and Carmela Scola Sacchetti (1849-1928), and Cira Carmela (Jeanne) Sacchetti Sansalone of Vineland, New Jersey, a descendant of Carmela Scola. We are very grateful te them for all their help. Concetta Scola Di Maio, daughter of Bernardo Scola (1851-1904), and her husband, Vito Di Maio (1899-1986), generously shared their knowledge of their ancestors in Forio. This better enabled us to understand the piace of these ancestors in the 1837 cholera epidemie. We are very grateful to Joyce Elaine Imperato Monteleone for her valuable help in researching a number of important facts. Her knowledge of Forio d’Ischia and its population is very extensive. She has frequently traveled there for periods of time beginning in 1959 and as recently as 2014. We are also grateful for the support and help of Josephine Ann Imperato Halper, Elissa Dolores Imperato Meyers, Gerard Anthony Imperato, and Francis Paul Imperato, respectively siblings and aunts and uncles. We would like to express our thanks to the Library, State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, the Vital Records Office, Comune dì Forio d’Ischia, Italy, the Vital Records Office, Comune di San Prisco, Italy, and the Plainview Family History Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. At the Plainview Family History Center, special thanks go to genealogist Marie Scalisi, and to fellow researchers, Eileen Holland, Peter Lattanzi, Barbara Murphy, and Armand Tarantelli, for their interest and help. We are very grateful to Lois Hahn, who patiently and expertly prepared several drafts of the paper, and to Donne Cooper for ber assistance with the figures. We wish to thank Frank Fasano of the Department of Biomedical Communications at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center for drawing the map, and Anton Daub for preparing the appendices.
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