San Giacomo degli Incurabili

The hospital of San Giacomo in Augusta , also known as San Giacomo degli Incurabili was a historic hospital located in Rome.

The Hospital was built for the first time in 1349 by the Colonna family for the will of the cardinal Pietro Colonna in honor of his uncle Giacomo Colonna, as stated in a memorial stone in one of the cortili. Leo X expressed in three apostolic letters between 1515 and 1516 his will to rebuild the hospital to help the pilgrims, the poor and especially the "incurables" not accepted from the other hospitals. Leo X mentioned in particular the fight against syphilis as a priority to be set on the hospital's activity. That was a new illness that spread to Europe from the Americas at the end of the 15th century and that was taken to Italy from the troops of the French king Charles VIII of France. In those same years, Girolamo Fracastoro, a pioneer of the modern pathology, proposed a cure for syphilis, the expensive Lignum vitae, that was soon offered to the patients of San Giacomo for free. In fact, the Statuta of San Giacomo was towards receiving patients of all economic conditions of both sexes for free, even for this very expensive cure.

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