Le epidemie di vaiolo nel Settecento: dalle prime forme di profilassi alla vaccinazione jenneriana

Smallpox, one of the most fatal epidemic and contagious diseases in the history, was the first cause of death in the world in the eighteenth century: about 60 million people died and the ones who survived bore indelible marks such as: blindness and disfiguring scars on the face. The present essay recalls the origins, etiology and treatment of smallpox disease from home remedies and preparations to the first preventive method of oriental origin: variolation. It was only in the early nineteenth century, thanks to the spread of the Jennerian discovery, that governments implemented effective vaccination policies. In particular in the Kingdom of Naples, where the smallpox epidemics in the eighteenth century had claimed more victims than elsewhere, a system of application of the new health practice was organized, which was appreciated throughout Europe.