The Accademia di Storia dell’Arte Sanitaria (Academy of the History of Health-Care Art), as stated in its statute, has as its purpose “the diffusion and increase of historical studies of health-care art in all their aspects and relationships”. It has its seat in a historic building, inside which there is an important medical museum: known and used by scholars and researchers, it has been open to the general public for some years.

FROM THE 1911 EXHIBITION

The first germ of the Academy dates back to 1911 when, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Unification of Italy, an exhibition of the health arts was set up in Castel Sant’Angelo and inaugurated on 28 March of that year by King Vittorio Emanuele III and Queen Elena. It formed an integral part of the retrospective exhibitions organised to display artefacts and working tools from the various eras and regions of Italy, on the occasion of an International Exhibition aimed at spreading and consolidating the idea of an “Italian civilisation” throughout the world.

The pharmacy jars and glassware collected on that occasion, together with surgical instruments, mortars for producing medicines, an ancient alchemical laboratory and a Roman pharmacy of the seventeenth century, preserved in various rooms, are now an integral part of the Historical Museum of the Academy, along with many subsequent donations.

THE FOUNDATION: 1920-1922

After the closure of the International Exposition the First World War broke out, and the project for the Academy Museum was resumed only on 22 April 1920, with a meeting in the Commendator’s Hall of the Santo Spirito Hospital attended by representatives of the Municipality of Rome, the Ospedali Riuniti of Rome, the Order of Malta, the Military Health hospital and the Italian Red Cross, joined subsequently by the Mauritian Order and the Italian Ministry of Education.

Two years later, on 14 May 1922, the Institute was granted the status of Ente Morale by Royal Decree No. 176. In the same period the statute was approved, establishing that the Academy be composed of 150 full members drawn from the medical and biological community, together with 150 corresponding members, as well as other worthy and honorary members.

THE NAME AND THE OFFICIAL RECOGNITION

On 16 October 1934 King Vittorio Emanuele III signed Royal Decree No. 284, by which the Institute took the name of Academy of the History of Health-Care Art, with the official rules published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale No. 69 of 23 March 1935.

THE FOUNDING BODIES

On 12 November 1987, with a further amendment to the statute, the founding members became: the Ministry of Health; the Ministry of Defence, with the two Army and Navy Health Inspectorates; the Ministry of Heritage and Cultural Activities (supervising Ministry); the Ministry of Education and Research; the Italian Red Cross; the Municipality of Rome; ASL Roma 1; the Order of Malta; and the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus.

HOW THE ACADEMY IS GOVERNED

According to the statute, the acting members elect the Council of Regency, made up of twelve members and the representatives of the founding bodies. This Council elects the President and the Vice President, and appoints an Executive Board made up of the Secretary General, the Vice-Secretary, the Administrator and the Curator of Collections who, together with the President and Vice President, decide on the appointment of the academic directors. Their aim is to organise the regional centres, which are essential in spreading the culture of health-care history throughout the country.

By a recent decision of the Council of Regency, the statute of the Academy is being amended once more, in order to increase the number of members by including further professional categories and to streamline the organisational structure.