Acque termali. Medicina, religione, ecologia nell'Italia di età moderna

This thesis investigates the attitudes towards hot mineral water in early modern Italy, by defining how different groups and actors perceived this element. This analysis deepens our understanding on different aspects of the early modern medical, religious and cultural field. During this period, medical and religious discourses normatively guided the practices of individuals and groups in the use of thermal waters, showing both continuities and caesuras in the thinking about the relationship with this element. The mid-sixteenth century was a central period for the medicalisation of spas and the development of medical knowledge. While the representation of baths and thermal waters was linked to literary and historical-antiquarian interests during the Renaissance, the publication of two important printed treatises marked a significant turning point in medical reflection on thermal waters. However, the early modern approach to hot mineral waters was not exclusively limited to the medical aspect. Some waters, such as those of Monteortone, were conceived as sacred elements, in which religious and medical practices were intertwined, due to the multi-layered concept of healing. Some hot mineral waters became the focus of local devotion during the Counter-Reformation, and were intrinsically part of local identity. The relationship between thermal waters to individuals and communities is well documented, while their interaction with other actors is underrepresented in the historiographical literature. The presence of animals at baths reflects their status in the early modern society, as guides and mediators for people, or as inferior beings separated from humans by material and symbolic walls. At the same time, the analysis of these natural elements and their perception reveals the role of human intervention in the environment. By reclaiming wetlands, the Republic of Venice profoundly altered ecosystems and, consequently, the balance between centre and periphery, a factor that was mirrored in the use of hot springs. Local elites benefited from the new management of the landscape, as hot mineral springs, and the associated investment in leisure infrastructures, became particularly profitable. Overall, the relationship between humans and thermal waters reveals a number of overlapping and intertwined layers, such as the advancement of medical knowledge, healing purposes, economic interests, social practices, self-representation, identity construction and the relationship with the sacred, which involved both humans and non-humans. In this sense, the analysis of hot mineral springs sheds light on the impact of nature and the element of hot mineral water on the early modern culture and society.