La peste a Bologna nel 1527.

La Madonna del Soccorso e le motiva-zioni storiche di una sentita devozione popolare

Abstract

In Italy in the year 1527, following the invasion of lans-quenetes headed by Georg von Frundsberg, a part of the army sent by Charles V to Italy to subjugate the Italian states who adhered to the Cognac leages, the bubonic plague appeared.
In Bologna during the year 1527 the believeres held a pro-cession from the Sanctuary of the Madonna del Soccorso, through the city, until the S. Rocco church. The reason of this practice was linked with the plague epidemic. After the discovery of some cases of plague in the Borgo di San Pietro district, the heritage reports the miracle of the inter-ruption of the epidemics, thanks to the intervention of Our Lady.
Later, after several decades, some authors from Bologna, who were not witnesses of the facts, reported that the epi-demic had involved 12,000 persons out of an overall popu-lation of around 60,000 people, at that time.
We re-evaluated this situation starting from demographic data of the Bologna citizens of the XV, XVI and XVII cen-turies; furthermore, we performed a search by the State Ar-chives of the city of Bologna, to look for eventual public notices coming from city authorities in the year 1527, aimed to counteract the plague epidemic. Our investigation did find elements supporting the plague epidemics. During the entire century until 1590, the population significantly grew, and no public notices or specific laws were diffused to face the plague until the year 1557. However, it remains possible that in the quoted area some episodes of plague occurred, but luckily it was a micro-epidemic who involved a very poor area of the city, which went to a self-limitation. On our opinion, this episode proved very important, since in this last district of Bologna, and around a wooden image of “Our Lady of the Assistance”, a fraternity strongly took place, and its activities continued until the year 1798. This group of citizens had also an important role in many chari-table activity in favour of Bologna citizens, during a diffi-cult historical period The Protestant reformation, and con-tributed to strenghten the faith of Catholic believers.