DEALING WITH THE DEAD IN NAPOLEONIC NOVARA
[NOVARA.]
[Incipit:] Il vescovo di Novara ai signori parrochi della città e diocesi.
[Novara], 10 May 1805.
Letterpress broadside (c. 305 x 210 mm), 25 lines of text; edges somewhat creased and dusty.
Added to your basket:
[Incipit:] Il vescovo di Novara ai signori parrochi della città e diocesi.
An apparently unrecorded broadside from the Piedmontese city of Novara on public health risks posed by leaving the faces of the dead uncovered, issued less than two months after the creation of Napoleon’s Kingdom of Italy.
The bishop of Novara, Vittorio Filippo Melano di Portula (1733–1813), addresses the parish priests of his city and diocese following repeated requests by medical authorities to stop the custom of bringing ‘the corpses of the deceased with their faces uncovered to church’. In the interests of public health, he asks his priests to ensure that relatives cover the faces of the dead with a black cloth.
No copies traced on OCLC or OPAC SBN.
