The Milano Sforza Registers of the Dead: Health Policies in Italian Renaissance

Abstract

The Mortorum Libri of Milano (1452-1801) represent the first register in Europe based on the daily recording of the dead and detailed information about the social ties of decease people. Mortorum Libri protocol is the first example of a monitoring and prevention chain based on ethical and juridical individual responsibility. The causes of death were codified according to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) to relate the original classification with the present one. This study has a particular reference to the Registers of the 15th century and analyzes the mortality in 1480 as an example of the database application in epidemiology.

Municipality Data as a Rapid and Effective Tool to Analyse Spatial and Temporal Variations of All-Cause Mortality by Town District: The Experience in Genoa (Italy)

“…In 1452, the Duke of Milan Francesco Sforza established the Mortuorum Libri of Milan (1452-1801) [1]. The Mortuorum Libri, or Death Registers, were based on the daily records of deaths in the city and were conceived as a tool for the swift containment of contagious diseases with rapid interventions such as closure of the affected homes or transfer of the sick to the lazaretto.…”