Hospice des Aliénès

Benoist, Félix (sec. XIX)

Sabatier, Léon Jean Baptiste (m. 1877)
Rome : Vue prise du Mont Janicule: Hospice des Aliénés, dû à la munificence de S. S. Pie IX = Roma: Veduta presa dal Monte Gianicolo: Manicomio stabilito per la munificenza di S.S. Pio IX / Félix Benoist del.; lith. avec Sabatier; fig. par Bayot. – [Paris : Henri Charpentier, 1870]. – 1 stampa; 331 x 485 mm.

In: Rome dans sa grandeur : vues, monuments anciens et modernes : description, histoire, institutions ... / Dessins d’après nature par Philippe Benoist et Félix Benoist; texte par MM. Frans de Champagny (de l’Académie Française), Eugène de la Gournerie, ... [et. al.] Deuxième volume. Rome chrétienne. – Paris: Henri Charpentier, 1870.
BPR G.F. A. 39/2

The lithograph, based on the drawing by Bayot (Adolphe Jean Baptiste, no. 1810?) is included in Chapter III (Institutions de charité), written by Eugène de la Gournerie (1807-1887), containing a brief historical description of the lunatic asylum (pp. 11-12: Sainte-Marie de la Pitié des pauvres fous). The illustration, with a few changes, is like the images in the book by Cacchiatelli-Cleter, and shows the asylum after the “grandiose extensions” commissioned by Pius IX and undertaken by Azzurri. In the foreground we can see the terraces of the women’s wing used for drying laundry, and in the background the iron suspension bridge, the “audacious suspended structure” opposite the Church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, built in 1863.
Of particular interest is the information on the patients, taken by the author from previous reports written by Monsignor Carlo Luigi Morichini and Dr. Lefebvre.
In 1837, the hospital fed 376 persons daily; average stage, 773 days; ratio between men and women 2.60 to 1.51 (but it is later observed that the women had a higher mortality rate); cures: 36.53 out of 100 persons; mortality: 5.54 out of 100 persons.
In 1858 the hospital housed about 420 patients, and had a special administration with an annual budget of 15,000 scudi excluding the fees paid by the wealthy families.

The patients were fed with 18 ounces of bread, 1 “barrel" of wine, 3 ounces of broth, 6 ounces of met, and a salad in the evening. A physician and a surgeon visited the hospital every day.

The work containing the lithograph consists of three volumes (Rome antique, Rome chrétienne, Rome moderne) and contains the historical and analytical description of the various monuments in the city of Rome.