Magistrat

1744 · 4109 — Turin Italy: Stamperia Reale 1744. Very good. Huge letterpress broadside 1070 x 360 mm printed on 2 1/2 folio sheets edges untrimmed. A few sections underlined and annotated in a contemporary hand in the left blank margin worn; paper extensions mainly in the right margin; prominent horizontal central fold other folds reinforced on verso with occasional lost of one or two letters. A remarkable survival preserved in mylar L-sleeve backed with lig-free board. GIGANTIC APPARENTLY UNRECORDED BROADSIDE ISSUED BY THE STATE MAGISTRATE WARNING AGAINST THE 1744 "CATTLE PLAGUE" EPIDEMIC IN NORTHERN ITALY A FLIMSY ATTEMPT AT GOVERNMENTAL MANAGEMENT AND DISEASE CONTROL. <br /> <br /> The disease described herein was almost certainly RIDERPEST a highly contagious viral infection which can produce a 100% death rate among herds the colloquial term "cattle plague" is a misnomer because sheep and goats can also be afflicted by it. <br /> <br /> The 1744 outbreak had been observed in The Netherlands in the months before our broadside was printed but the Magistrate mentions only the reports from Franche Comté. While the devating consequences of cattle plague in The Netherlands are well researched its effects in Italy at this same time are not well-known probably due to the comparatively low survival rate of contemporary documentation. <br /> <br /> Indeed no other copy of our broadside can be found. Here the Magistrate of the Conservatory General of Health gives warning signs of the infection and preventative measures against its spread including mandatory "lazarettos" quarantine areas for livestock. The "nature and the signs" of the disease is addressed along with a dubious and ineffectual attempt at a remedy which involved cold water salt vinegar pepper and camphor; "Rimedi preservativi" prophylactic measures are recommended and steps for "fumigating" i.e. disinfecting livestock and their owners are given. <br /> <br /> The urgency of Magistrate's is justified: less than 30 years earlier through circuitous trade routes cattle plague had spread like wildfire even the most remote regions of Eastern and Western Europe and Britain. Such trade networks had become larger and more sophisticated in order to supply food to growing urban centers.<br /> <br /> Throughout history outbreaks of cattle plague led to severe economic crisis: the resulting famine inflation civil unrest and overall moral decay destabilized societies with crippling effect as had been seen in The Netherlands in the first outbreak of 1713-1720. Wherever and whenever cattle plague emerged religious figures government officials technocrats and the public wrested with the meaning and consequences of these disasters.<br /> <br /> Students and scholars of socio-economics in the Early Modern era would do well do incorporate primary sources of veterinary history in their research.<br /> <br /> NB: Interested parties are advised that this huge broadside will be shipped folded. Stamperia Reale unknown