Padiglione XXXII - Officine - Tipografia

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Padiglione XXXII – Officine – Tipografia – Tabella LVIII.

In: Il nuovo ospedale provinciale “S. Maria della Pietà”: le malattie mentali dal 1901 al 1936 nella provincia di Roma / Augusto Giannelli. – Roma: Tip. Osp. S. Maria della Pietà, 1937. – 228 p., V, 59 c. di tav.; 24 cm.
BPR EA 49

Continuing the 1905 work, the author and Asylum Director goes on to tell about the history of the institution with regard to the logistic aspects as well as the analysis of the trends and distribution for mental illness in the Province of Rome.
In the period between 1913-1924, the hospital was transferred from Via della Lungara to the new premises of Monte Mario, inaugurated in 1924 with the name of “Santa Maria della Pietà Provincial Hospital for Mental Diseases”, designed to host 1,000 patients.
The hospital was built in accordance with the guidelines provided to the provincial administration by  Professor Giannelli, who outlined a type of organization similar to that of hospitals for general medicine, with each pavilion functioning independently under the autonomous management of a head physician.
Professor Giannelli insisted on the concept of an “open” asylum, without walls isolating the buildings and with garden areas for each pavilion, enclosed only by metal fences and not masonry walls. This was based on the conviction that “le fughe non sono registrate nei manicomi aperti con frequenza maggiore che in quelli così detti chiusi.”
The hospital, equipped with all the items required for the study and treatment of the inmates, adopted as its main tool the technique of “energy therapy”. According to this, the work done for “creatore e rieducatore di energie conservatrici e risanatrici della vita mentale” must always have practical utility, and be remunerated, even if to a minimum extent.
Ample areas are thus provided in the hospital for workplaces, with a carpentry shop, bookbindery, printing press, shoemaking shop, a greenhouse and a farm producing grain, legumes and vegetables, as well as animal breeding facilities with cattle, pigs, poultry, rabbits, beehives and silkworms.

The statistical data for the years 1901-36 report the admissions, checkouts, mortality and readmissions according to each type of illness and the province where the patients were born. There is also an alarming general picture indicating more frequent readmissions in patients born and domiciled in Rome and a significant progressive increase of admissions, from 1,783 patients in 1901 to 3,556 in 1936.
Although this trend is not limited just to the Province of Rome or to Italy, thus living rise to catastrophic forecasts on the fate of modern civilization, the author has the reassuring position that reference should be made to an increase of inmates and not in the illness; in other words, “la civiltà non crea la follia, la mette in evidenza”.