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Citation: A. Ceccarelli (2023) 
Plague and Politics in Genoa 
(1528-1664). Jems. Special 
Issue: Plagues in Early Modern 
Europe. pp. 1-22. doi: http://
dx.doi.org/10.36253/JEMS-2279-
7149-14226

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Editors: D. Pallotti, P. Pugliatti 
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JEMS - Journal of

Early Modern Studies

Journal of Early Modern Studies. Special Issue: Plagues in Early Modern Europe: 1-22, 2023 
ISSN 2279-7149 (online) | DOI: 10.36253/JEMS-2279-7149-14226

Plague and Politics in Genoa (1528-1664)
Alessia Ceccarelli

Sapienza Università di Roma (<alessia.ceccarelli@uniroma1.it>)

Abstract

The article examines Genoese responses to plague during the old regime. 
Much like the Venetian, the Genoese ruling class understood the nexus 
between plague, poverty, and famine, and how these, in turn, tied in with 
political unrest. Some of the Republic’s main political and diplomatic crises 
were indeed followed by severe outbreaks of plague. Thus, the 1528 plague 
marked the proclamation of the oligarchic Republic, as a Spanish protector-
ate, masterminded by Andrea Doria, whereas the 1579-1580 plague closed 
the civil wars (a struggle of the old patriciate against an alliance of the new 
patriciate with the popular faction, 1575-1576). While the plague that swept 
through northern Italy in 1628-1630 narrowly missed Genoa, it became a 
metaphor with Genoese political thinkers for the narrowly escaped annexation 
of the Republic by Charles Emmanuel I of Savoy (who died of plague in his 
encampment, together with scores of the heretics on his payroll). The 1656-
1657 epidemic was the most severe in the Genoese old regime, capping an 
acute political and jurisdictional crisis with Rome and with archbishop Stefano 
Durazzo. Remarkable documents of this enduring state of conflict are the prayer 
composed by Paolo Foglietta (poet and brother to Oberto, who was a leader 
in the civil wars and later a historian of the Republic) invoking an end to the 
1579-1580 epidemic, and the anonymous preghiera repubblicana (held at the 
Vatican Apostolic Archive) which the government of the Republic included 
in the official religious liturgy in response to a heated jurisdictional crisis with 
the Holy See (1605-1607). Rome ordered archbishop Orazio Spinola to have 
the prayer banned, but the ‘Collegi’ of the Republic attempted to have it 
reinstated following the 1656-1657 plague.

Keywords: Famine, Genoese Republic, Plague, Political Crises, Prayer

1. Introduction. The Endurance of Epidemics in Political and So-
cial Consciousness: The Interplay of Sanitary and Political Crises

From accounts of the 1656 outbreak of plague in Naples, Paolo 
Preto has observed, we see how ‘the revolt of Masaniello had 
left an open wound’ which ‘dramatically heightened’ the per-
ception of the negative impact of the epidemic on social and 
political relations (1987, 81; Villari 1994; D’Alessio 2003 and 



alessia ceccarelli2

2018).1 Giulia Calvi had previously noted how ‘the study of an outbreak of plague brings out 
disconcerting evidence … of unchanging recurrences across time and space’ (1981, 405),2 
although what was witnessed with greatest force in Naples in 1656 was a signal re-enact-
ment of the scenario of 1647. There is a vast body of evidence of the way the ‘memory of 
past events and medico-political terminology dovetail significantly even when the historical 
antecedent is not called up overtly’ (413), particularly in the letters of the papal nuncio in 
Naples, Giulio Spinola (born 1612, Genoa – died 1691, Rome), which provide an invaluable 
account of the epidemic.3 While already a term of common and frequent usage, all references 
to contagion in Spinola’s accounts are indicative of a deep sense of distress as the ghosts of the 
former political plague returned to haunt the city and the new infection reportedly broke out 
in the same three districts of the city in which ‘nine years earlier the revolt of Masaniello had 
found support’ (421). In 1656, echoes of the events of 1647 run through ‘tutta la memoria 
della peste’ (all recollections of the plague) ‘as the same sites, occasions, and popular feeling 
were revisited’. ‘The uprising of the lazzari in Naples and the shadow of their leader also 
pervade the extent of the writings of Parrino’, official historian of the viceroyalty in Naples 
and mouthpiece for the Spanish government, in which ‘the revolution and plague perfectly 
mirror each other as forms of contagion’ (ibid.), present and past entwine, and the outward, 
contingent cause (the arrival of a ship from Sardinia), ‘brings along the internal cause that 
will tear apart the community in the same way in which, nine years earlier, the revolt had 
spread and rent the social fabric’ (421-422). Consciously playing on the plague/revolution 
nexus, Parrino reported that Masaniello’s acolytes had returned to the city, seeking to exploit 
the plague to stir a ‘nuova sedizione di popolo’ (new popular rebellion) (423). In a consonant 
mode, the ‘strategia vicereale’ (viceroyal strategy) was to channel popular outrage against the 
great enemies of the Spanish monarchy by denouncing certain Frenchmen as plague-spreaders. 
The archetype on which both figures of an ‘avvelenatore’ (poisoner) and chief conspirator 
(upon whose instruction the poisoner purposely sowed the infection) were modelled was 
essentially that of the political enemy who ‘from a position of ambiguous marginality threatens 
the unblemished solidity of the social group’ (424).4 Conversely, there also stood a host of 
heroes, benefactors, martyrs, and wonder-workers who promised to redeem the Neapolitans 
and lead them back to salvation through prayer, processions, the burning of candles and 
lanterns, and the miraculous deeds of relics. The plague again brought to light everything 
that ‘the collective memory’ (412-413) had not yet come to terms with: the suffering, mis-
takes, betrayals, and violence. Memory of the traumatic experience of 1647 was so enduring 
it could once again be seen to reverberate through the 1764 famine (448-449). The 1656 
plague epidemic, that is, left such a lasting mark on the ‘contemporary consciousness’ (408), 
that it became an essential

Link in the chain … of misfortune: the eruption of the Vesuvius in 1631, followed by the earthquake 
and revolutionary outbreak in 1647. The epidemic came to be seen as an episode within a sequence of 
calamities which afflicted the [social] group at regular intervals; the crisis can always … be inferred from 
similar crises in the past as each misfortune bears the signs of the next. (450-451)

1 This and subsequent translations are mine. 
2 As Calvi says, ‘the narratives, accounts, and “memories in times of plague” reproduce, with sombre solemnity, 

the topoi of an event that is more myth than fact, in a fixed, unchanging sequence’ (1981, 405). 
3 On Giulio Spinola, see Moroni 1854, 295-296; Ruffini 2018, 149-161.
4 In the letters from Nuncio Spinola, this topic emerges clearly: AAV, Segreteria di Stato, Napoli, Giulio Spinola, 

vol. 54, cc. 448r-449v, 17 May, 1656; cc. 456r-457v, Relatione che si è avuta da Ministri Regij del Collaterale (May 
1656); cc458r-486v, 10 June, 1656; cc.498r-499v, 13 June 1656; vol. 55, cc. 127r-128v, 1 July, 1656.



plague and politics in genoa (1528-1664) 3

With these analyses of Naples in mind, the Republic of Genoa stands out as a notable mod-
ern-age case study for its response to plague epidemics. The understanding of plague, the 
preventative and sanitary measures taken, and other forms of response are to be read in the 
light of the Republic’s politics (both internal and foreign), social dynamics, and distinctly local 
elements of religious tradition. On more levels than the merely linguistic, plague and sedition 
came to be regarded, and sometimes conflated, as forms of infection, and sometimes were, 
but invariably were seen to be, reverberations and echoes of one another in some more or less 
direct causal or temporal relation. The anxiety of sedition (political contagion) was rooted in 
the Genoese mindset, not just among the direct witnesses of an epidemic wave. So, while the 
trauma of disease, isolation, and loss were obviously impressed in the memory of individuals, 
what Calvi calls ‘political memory of the epidemic’ (1984, 7) remains a neglected aspect of the 
politics and society of the Genoese old regime,5 although it is clearly legible in the documents 
of eminent exponents of the Genoese old-regime ruling class, belonging to both the patriciate 
old and new (Spinola and Pallavicino, on the one hand, and Della Torre, on the other) and the 
emerging classes (Foglietta).

When compared with Giulia Calvi’s analysis of Naples, two elements stand out foremost 
as peculiar to Genoa. In Genoa, the deep-set fear of political contagion owed largely to the civil 
wars of 1575-76, the memory of which haunted the Genoese over several generations; these were, 
in turn, understood as the reprise of former agitations (going back as far as 1356-1363, and the 
downfall and death of Simon Boccanegra, and then the more recent Rivolta delle Cappette of 
1506-1507) (Taviani 2008 and 2021, 43-64, 75-88 and 100-104), and as the mainspring for 
subsequent popular conspiracies in the seventeenth century. While emphasis is rightly placed on 
the disorders of 1575-1576, the Genoese old regime was notorious for political instability. In 
book VII of Guicciardini’s Storia d’Italia, Genoa is seen to epitomise the plight of cities rent by 
infighting, where warring factions are an endemic political plague.6 On another level, however, and 
much unlike the Neapolitans, the notion that plague could be manufatta, artificially instilled by 
plague-spreaders, had very little currency in Genoa. In this regard, the Genoese mindset was closer 
to the Venetian and Florentine, as several scholars have noted (Preto 1987, 19, 21; Assereto 2011, 
131; Ascheri 2020) – though Venice, particularly, was a signal example of unity and concord.7

This article examines in further detail the conflation of plague and socio-political unrest 
in political and literary discourse (largely drawing on archival manuscript documents) and on 
the level of religious practices. Plague was a ‘form of infection that defied all human reckoning 
… the cause of anxiety and uncertainty’ that inevitably tied in with the idea of divine pun-
ishment and promoted ‘inordinate recourse to religious practices’ intended to atone for such 
excesses as lust and ‘il mangiar troppo’ (too much eating) (Sorcinelli 2009, 42-51). But when 
the beliefs and opinions of the Genoese are examined closely, it appears that political excesses 
were foremost in their minds and painfully acknowledged – sometimes in private statements 
of remorse,8 and in one eminent instance in the intended form of a public prayer (Foglietta). 

5 Scholars, so far, have focused on demographics, economic and medical history, and provisions for plague 
management (the Genoese Magistrato di Sanità and care institutions responsible for handling health crises) (Presotto 
1965; Lagomarsino 1976, 409-429; Rossi 1976, 393-408; Preto 1987, 19-30, 66, 73-80, 125-126, 267-279, 284-
288 and 302-308; Pastore 1991, 173-203; Assereto 2011; Calcagno and Palermo 2017). 

6 Archivio di Stato di Torino (ASTo), CE, G, 1, Memoriale del Popolo Genovese, cc. 2v, 4v; Bitossi 2003, 393-
397; Pacini 2007, 215-37; Taviani 2008, 2021, 43-64 and 75-104. 

7 Biblioteca Universitaria di Genova (BUG), B.VIII.29, ‘Venetia’ (Pocock 1975, 316-322). 
8 See Benjamin 2014, 123-156.



alessia ceccarelli4

2. The Plague and Socio-Political Unrest 

The ‘sano scetticismo’ (healthy scepticism, Assereto 2011, 132) the Genoese generally opposed 
to the notion that plague could be deliberately spread was shared by physicians and ‘most of the 
ruling class’ (Preto 1987, 19) alike and was undoubtedly a contributing factor in ‘assuaging fears 
and indiscriminate acts of repression’ (ibid.). By and large, that is, the Genoese gave little credence 
to rumours inspired by the theory of plague-spreaders so that not even during the 1656-1657 
epidemic, when Genoa lost more than half its population,9 were there any comparable instances 
of the manhunts and lynchings that had occurred in Milan in 1630 (Assereto 2011, 131), and 
took place in Naples during that same epidemic of 1656-1657.10 This is not to say Genoa did not 
have its own share of believers in the idea that pestiferous lotions and powders could be concocted 
(Preto 1987, 21), or of superstitiously-minded individuals prone to seek supernatural causes and 
remedies for the disasters that periodically struck them. This particular epidemic, for instance, is 
known to have peaked in July-August 1657 after whole crowds had swarmed to the Cathedral 
of Saint Lawrence to be anointed with the blessed oil of the lamp that burnt in the cappella del 
Soccorso, and that was because rumour had spread that the oil rendered immune from plague 
(Lagomarsino 1976, 425). Essentially, however, the Genoese had the pragmatic mindset of a 
maritime and mercantile civilization, much like the Venetians and Florentines, and saw that 
the circulation of people and goods, while essential to trade relations, was also a likely vehicle 
of epidemics (Assereto 2011, 129-131). With reason, then, the Republic’s emissaries devoted 
special attention to the office of gathering and communicating intelligence relating to suspected 
cases of the plague.11 In the same vein, the damage caused by an epidemic was assessed, foremost, 
in terms of the financial setbacks it produced and dealt with accordingly. Thus, to alleviate the 
catastrophic effects of the 1656-1657 plague on the manufacturing industry, the city authorities 
responded by means of tax incentives and the establishment of the free port, designed to attract 
new skilled labour and the trade of Jewish and Eastern merchants.12

Readiness to believe that epidemics could be the work of plague-spreaders was part super-
stition, but usually betrayed some more substantial aspect of social and political imbalance; and 
yet, while Genoa considerably suffered from the latter, no alleged plague-spreaders were ever 
indicted and brought to trial (Assereto 2011, 130-131). Conversely, the Genoese ruling class and 
intellectuals were well aware of the links that, on the one hand, tied plague to poverty and famine 
and, on the other, to political unrest, and endeavoured to act upon the knowledge at times of 
crisis. Nonetheless, the gravest outbreaks of plague correlated rather closely with an exacerbation 
of socio-political strife, and epidemics were, perforce, not uncommon in a pivotal port city that 
stood as a gateway to the Italian peninsula (hence its name, from Lat. ianua: door).

The 1528 outbreak of the plague, for instance, was recorded as a ‘grandissima e molto 
horribile pestilenza’13 which caused the death of scores of eminent citizens and caused as many 

9 Possibly 60,000-70,000 individuals, out of a little over 100,000 total inhabitants (Presotto 1965, 353-355; 
Lagomarsino 1976, 409-429; Bitossi 1990, 291; Bitossi 2003, 391-508; Calcagno and Ferrando 2019, 117-147).

10 As well as Liguria, the epidemic hit Sardinia, southern Italy, and the Papal States, and was the object of close 
study by contemporary analysts (Anonymous 1665, 1-5). See also Lagomarsino 1976, 411, 428; Del Panta 1980; 
Cipolla 1985; Henderson 2003, 481-499; Fosi 2007; Cipolla 2012.

11 Thus, for instance, Ottavio Doria, consul of the Republic at Smyrna, upon receiving rumori di peste (ru-
mours of pestilence) from Constantinople, Archivio di Stato di Genova (ASGe), AS, LC, T, 2703, Ottavio Doria 
to government, letters from December 12, May 9 and July 1667. See also Varlik 2015; Petitjean 2015, 215-232.

12 ASGe, AS, LM, R, 2367, Gio. Pietro Spinola, letters from June-July 1660; 2371, Ferdinando Raggi, letters 
from April-May 1666 (Costantini 1966, 95-108; Giacchero 1972; Zappia 2020, 119-145; Zappia 2021).

13 ASGe, 265, c1v. in Assereto 2011, 19 (great and most horrible plague).



plague and politics in genoa (1528-1664) 5

others to flee the city, so that ‘nella città vedevasi una strage e solitudine miserabile’.14 This wave 
occurred in the year in which Andrea Doria, who was de facto lord of the city, succeeded in 
his design to bring radical changes to the political structure of the Republic and its system of 
alliances, making Genoa at once an oligarchic Republic (in which only the aristocracy enrolled 
in the Liber Nobilitatis Genuensis could accede to government) and a Spanish ally.15 At the 
same time, the magistrature of the Conservatori di Sanità was created for the prevention and 
management of epidemics and became a permanent organ in the framework of government.16 
In 1578-1580, there was another serious outbreak of plague, following the 1575-1576 civil 
war that ensued from the Habsburg default of 1575 and consequent financial crisis in Genoa. 
The atmosphere of the civil war, with its bitter infighting and aggravation in internal relations, 
is largely reflected in the intense pamphleteering activity of the period (most of which anony-
mous); eventually, a settlement was reached as the old and new patriciate agreed to equal political 
status.17 The ‘true union’ (Pacini 2003, 381) between old and new nobles, Spanish ambassador 
Juan de Idiáquez wrote,18 was a remarkable political achievement and gave substance to what 
the 1528 reforms had only obtained in principle. On the other hand, the Leges Novae did not 
address all the causes of conflict among social factions, once again excluding the faction of the 
populares from the chief magistratures. The populares were headed by exponents of the liberal 
professions (typically physicians, lawyers, and wealthy merchants) who had sided with the new 
patriciate in the civil war: from their standpoint, the settlement was a betrayal and kindled new 
recrimination and discontent that would trouble the Republic at least into the third decade of 
the seventeenth century and be the cause of several conspiracies.19

Given the underlying state of political conflict and recurring waves of epidemic, it is not 
surprising that to the minds of Genoese political thinkers (whose chronicles and treatises are  
still largely in manuscript form) plague should offer itself not merely as a rhetorical device but 
in the light of an actual, if indirect, perceived correlation between the state of the body politic 
and the devastating epidemics experienced in their times. In their treatment of the 1624-1625 
war and subsequent popular conspiracies (1627-1629), Andrea Spinola (1562?-1631), Giulio 
Pallavicino (1558?-1635), and Raffaele Della Torre (1579-1666) all use plague imagery (‘morbo’, 
‘piaghe’) to describe the seditious pamphlets that urged the populace to revolt. Della Torre, 
consultore in jure of the Republic and historian, recounted the Ansaldi-Vachero conspiracy (1627-
1628) in the terms of a malaise affecting a weakened body and calling for adequate treatment:

e questo fine al suo principio proportionato ebbe quella congiura, che da debolezza di governo nata 
nella Republica Genovese, non altrimente che per debolezza di calor vitale ne i corpi umani nascono le 
fistole, fuorché dal ferro, e dal fuoco rifiutava ogn’altra cura, la quale benché felicemente riuscita, poco 
averebbe a più longa durata dalla Republica proceduto … se con la istituzione d’un nuovo Magistrato in 
essa d’Inquisitori di Stato … con potestà assoluta di riseccare dalle Radici l’origine di tanti mali, non si 

14 ASGe, 265, c1v. in Assereto 2011, 19 (carnage and miserable solitude were to be seen in the city).
15 BUG, B.VIII.27, ‘Leggi del 28’. See also Savelli 1981, 49-52; Bitossi 1990, 22-27; Pacini 1999; Kirk 2005, 47.
16 The activities of the Conservatori di Sanità are documented as of 1530 (Assereto 2011, 19; Cipolla 1989b, 

243-262). 
17 BUG, B.VIII.27, ‘Leggi del 76’; Ciasca, 1951, 185-213; Doria 1976, 377-394; Savelli 1980, 82-105; Savelli 

1981, 3-81; Bitossi 1990, 31-40; Kirk 2005, 45-66.
18 Idiáquez greatly contributed to the drafting of the 1576 Leges Noavae, which determined the latter system 

of government of the Republic (Pacini 2003, 381-382). 
19 The conspiracies promoted by the ‘nobile nuovo’ (new noble) Bartolomeo Coronata, in 1577, by the ‘dottor 

di leggi’ (doctor of law) Gio. Girolamo Rosso and physician Gio. Gregorio Leveratto (1603), and several others 
(1627-1628, 1629) (Savelli 1975, 29-172; Ceccarelli 2018a, 13-14, 33-38, 47-107, 173 and 177).



alessia ceccarelli6

fosse con proportionato stabilimento reso il Governo più rigoroso e più possente a consumare gli umori 
maligni, che ne i corpi grandi per corrotela della natura alla giornata vanno pullulando.20

Along similar lines wrote Giulio Pallavicino in his Vero e distinto ragionamento (A true and 
clear argument): ‘sapendo che quando il corpo è pieno di mali humori i medici prima che fare 
altri rimedij, danno di mano a medicine per purgarlo. Lo stesso fecero essi Inquisitori di Stato, 
sciegliendo quei che più mordaci nel loro parlare si mostravano’.21 And, still in the same vein, 
Pallavicino also commented on the death by plague of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, 
who, as a great enemy of the Genoese, had attempted to annex Liguria in 1624-1625 and lent 
support to the conspiracy of 1627-1628. The ‘principe’, Pallavicino wrote, had died in ignominy 
and paid for his sins by ending his life in a tent, struck by the very disease that was rife among 
his mercenary troops, a horde of heretic barbarians, ‘canaglia ... infetta dall’Heresia Luterana, o 
Calvinista’22, and ‘morbo’ (malaise) which ‘haveria infettata tutta la Italia’.23 ‘Il Duca di Savoia 
era un grande Principe, non di meno non ha potuto schiffare a guisa di huomo privato il morire 
di peste, e si crede siano stati i suoi peccati, e l’inaudite sceleratezze, da lui comportate, fatte 
nelle contrade della Republica Genovese dal suo esercito l’anno 1625’.24 While death by plague 
was in all instances regarded as ‘defiling, barbarous’ (Calvi 1984, 27), Pallavicino lends an overt 
political connotation to the death of Charles Emmanuel I. The Duke had conspired against the 
Republic and sought to undermine its freedom, spreading political plague and religious infection 
at once – and therefore deserving to die by the same scourge.

As one may expect, the Piedmontese engaged in the same kind of slander and political 
propaganda against their counterpart. Thus, Pietro Biandrà, the Piedmontese envoy in Paris, 
wrote to Charles Emmanuel I that ‘questi Genovesi’ were manifestly not ‘ancora satij di procu-
rar d’offender la reputatione di Vostra Altezza con le loro pestifere lingue’,25 whereas Valeriano 

20 ASCGe, 132, cc. 149-150 (And to such end, proportional to its inception, came that conspiracy, which 
from the weakness of government sprang within the Genoese Republic, no differently than a faintness of vital 
heat causes sores to form in human bodies, [and] no to other cure than fire and iron would it respond, which 
while successfully accomplished, not much longer would the Republic have lasted … if the institution of the new 
magistrature of Inquisitors of State … with absolute powers to cut at the root the source of so many ills, had not 
been proportionally established … to consume the ill humours that daily swarm the greater bodies due to natural 
corruption). See also Savelli 1989. 

21 ASCGe, 341, c. 219r (In the knowledge that when the body is full of ill humours, before seeking other rem-
edies, physicians make use of medicines to purge it. The same did the State Inquisitors in choosing the ones whose 
speech was more mordacious). The metaphor that conflates plague/disease with conspiracy is again used in the Vero 
e distinto ragionamento with reference to that faction of the populares who identified themselves with the Memoriale 
del Popolo Genovese (1629-1630) (Memoir of the Genoese people), a pamphlet traditionally ascribed to the doctor 
in law Vincenzo Ligalupo and therefore known as the Memoriale or Manifesto Ligalupo: ‘tale morbo era per infettare 
tutto il corpo, e ben presto cagionare qualche universale seditione, se non vi poneva gagliardo rimedio’ (ASCGe, 
341, cc. 209v- 210r) (the malaise was about to infect the entire body and soon cause some universal conspiracy if 
some strong remedy was not taken against it). See also, ASTo, CE, G, 1, Memoriale del Popolo Genovese, cc. 1r-10; 
Ceccarelli 2018a, 15, 23, 64, 80-99, 103-123 and 157-158. 

22 ASCGe, 341, c. 219r (villainous mob … infected by the Lutheran, or Calvinist, Heresy).
23 ASCGe, 341, c. 219r (had infected all of Italy).
24 ASCGe, 341, c. 219r (The Duke of Savoy was a great Prince, and yet could not escape dying of the plague 

like the common man, and it is thought it was on account of his sins, and the unspeakable villainies committed 
on his orders by his army in the territories of the Genoese Republic in the year 1625) (Ceccarelli 2018a, 95-98, 
101-103, 128, 148, 163-166 and 183).  

25 ASTo, LM, F, 29, 1, Pietro Biandrà to the Duke of Savoy, 19 May 1628 (These Genoese [were not] yet sated 
of offending against the reputation of Your Highness with their pestiferous tongues).



plague and politics in genoa (1528-1664) 7

Castiglione, historian of the Turin court, portrayed the despotism of the Republic’s ruling class 
as ‘malgoverno’ (misrule) or ‘contagiosa infermità’ (contagious infirmity).26

Finally, there were also those among the Genoese patriciate who betrayed the Republic 
and sided with the Savoy enemy. Andrea Spinola repeatedly defined them all as ‘pomi guasti’ 
(rotten apples), and it must have seemed fitting to him that some of them, such as bishop 
Pier Francesco Costa, reportedly died, ‘because of a plague carried by the Piedmontese army’ 
(Stumpo 1984).27 One way or another, their ignoble death paralleled their equally ignoble po-
litical conduct, and these cautionary narratives were handed down as lore (Ceccarelli 2018a, 
95-140). In essence, the Genoese civil wars of 1575-1576 and the complex chain of events 
that unfolded in 1624-1629 conformed to the pattern of ‘unchanging recurrences across time 
and space’ (Calvi 1981, 405) described by Calvi in her study of the Naples revolt of 1647 and 
plague of 1656: in the chronicles and commentaries of the time, political infection was as 
lethal and contagious as plague, and the enemies, whether instigators or agents, were those who 
threatened to poison the State and its liberty.

Still, the wave of plague that swept through Italy (and particularly northern Italy) between 
1628 and 1631 and killed Charles Emmanuel I actually spared the city of Genoa.28 The next 
wave to reach Genoa came in 1648-1650 in the form of ‘febbri maligne’ (malignant fevers, 
probably spotted fever), and this time found the city in the throes of the wave of political agi-
tations which culminated in the Balbi and Raggio conspiracies.29 Speaking of the ‘exacerbation 
… of social and political tensions’ in times of plague and of the Balbi and Raggio conspiracies 
in particular, Alessandro Pastore has noted: 

The extent to which the conflicts and conspiracies that involved factions of the Genoese patriciate in the 
mid-seventeenth century, such as the Balbi conspiracy and the Raggio conspiracy, were prejudicial to the 
initiative of the ruling class as a whole and hindered its capacity to respond to the emergency remains a 
matter of speculation (1991, 65 and 203)

though the emergency was, once again, at once political and medical. The government of the 
Republic, at any rate, managed to issue poverty relief measures in an attempt to act upon the 
vicious circle between poverty, epidemic cycles, and social and political agitation (Cipolla and 
Doria 1982, 163-196; Assereto 2011, 70). The social welfare system of the Republic was already, 
in fact, one of the most advanced in the Modern age, with its virtuous synergy between public 
authorities and the private sector;30 nonetheless, poverty remained endemic and a threat to the 
stability of the Republic. Political conspirators, for one thing, all shared the conviction they 
could easily manipulate the poor and channel their destitution into conspiracy.31

26 ASTo, C, Storia della Real Casa, 14, Della Vita, XXV, c. 212r.
27 See also BUG, F.VI.22, ‘Albenga’. See also Alfani 2013, 408-430.
28 On the plague of Finale, see Calcagno 2012, 96-161.
29 Both waves of dissent were led by the so-called ‘mobba’ or ‘cabilda dei gentiluomini’, a small group of 

nobles which included two exponents of the ‘nobiltà nuova’, Giovan Paolo Balbi and Stefano Raggi; the latter were 
both banished (1647) and then indicted for conspiracy. Balbi managed to escape (in 1648), Raggi, though almost 
certainly innocent, was executed (1650) (Bitossi 1990, 253-278; Grendi 1997, 194-207, 326; Ceccarelli 2016).

30 BUG, B.VIII.27, ‘Hospitali’ (Grendi 1975, 621-665; Del Lungo 1983, 213-238; Savelli 1984, 173-216; 
Grendi 1987, 281-306; Parma Armani 1988, 69-180; Solfaroli Camillocci 2002; Polonio 2004, 311-368; Naphy 
and Spicer 2006, 70-85; Assereto 2011; Stevens Crawshaw 2012, especially ch. 5, ‘Dying in the Lazaretti’; Petti 
Balbi 2013, 111-150; Calcagno and Ferrando 2019, 125-152).

31 In fact, the Genoese ‘popolo minuto’ (lower class) proved largely unresponsive to these attempted conspiracies 
(Ceccarelli 2018a, 47-67, 80-92 and 162-189).



alessia ceccarelli8

The whole nexus of poverty and plague, and its further links with socio-economic distress 
and political dissent was closely analysed by Andrea Spinola. In his Dizionario politico-filosofico 
(or Ricordi), the subject is broken down under several headings, each approaching the causes, 
effects, and concomitant phenomena of plague from a different angle.32 Spinola was probably 
the most perceptive modern-age Genoese theorist in the field of political science and had a great 
influence on his contemporaries; he also kept revising and updating his observations, analyses, 
and inferences until the time of his death, in 1631, as the 1625-1629 period of civil wars had 
compelled him to embark on a thorough revision of his work (which was never published, but 
circulated in manuscript form even beyond his immediate circle of friends and allies). In a similar 
way to Pallavicino (and unlike Della Torre), Spinola belonged to a generation that had been greatly 
affected by both conflict and plague, having witnessed the civil wars and subsequent epidemic in 
1578-80, and reaching the end of his life as Milan (then governed by the renowned Ambrogio, 
a relative of his) was overcome by infection (Casoni 1691). In the entry given under the heading 
of ‘Peste’, Spinola noted, first of all, that although it had been often afflicted by plague, Genoa 
enjoyed a felicitous position, with constant sea breezes preventing stagnant air from settling in the 
city.33 He understood that the port and its trade were a chief contributing factor (under 2., in the 
entry below), in combination with the vast numbers of people living in poverty (under 3.), and 
that cities struck by plague needed to make provisions against famine and speculation (under 4.):

1. Non ostante che la nostra Città sia d’aria sana, con tutto ciò ella è stata afflitta più volte dalla peste. 
2. Da quella peste la quale nasce dall’infettione dell’aria, qui, per gratia di Dio, non se ne può quasi 
temere, possiamo ben temere di quella che viene da contaggione, alla quale le Città maritime soglion 
essere soggette, stante li forastieri e le mercantie, che per mare, e per terra, vengono da molte parti, da 
vicino, e da lontano. 3. Hoggidì la nostra Città corre risico di appestarsi più facilmente del solito stante 
tanta moltitudine soverchia, e bisognosissima che v’è, la quale io miro come cosa atta a partorir più 
sorte d’inconvenienti, e tutti pericolosi assai. 4. Guai a noi se hoggidì, scoprendosi qui una peste non 
si trovassimo gran proviggione di grani per molti mesi. 5. La peste dà tal volta occasione, e comodità a 
forestieri di invader lo Stato di quel Principe, o Republica che si trova afflitta da tal male.34 

32 Because Andrea Spinola would characteristically approach a subject from several angles, it is often neces-
sary to collate several disparate entries to appreciate the main tenets of his thought (Bitossi 1981, 5-64; Ceccarelli 
2018a, 162-184).

33 It was commonly thought that corruption of the air caused the plague (the term for which was: ‘infezione’ 
[infection]), and that it would thus spread to most of the inhabitants of an infected area, and kill them, regardless 
of whether they’d had any contact with a plague victim. The air would become corrupted, the notion went, because 
of stagnant waters, unburied corpses, noxious exhalations from the fractures in the ground caused by earthquakes, 
or by animals that throve in filth. The contagion of one individual by another (through direct contact or by the 
exchange of infected items: what at the time was called ‘contagio’ [contagion]) was thought to be secondary to the 
plague itself (Rossi 1976, 393). On the so-called ‘miasmal-humoral’ theory, see Cipolla 1989b; Cipolla 2012, 83-
108; Sansa 2002, 83-108; Sansa 2006, 93-109. 

34 BUG, B.VIII.28, ‘Peste’ (1. Although our city has healthy air, that notwithstanding it has been afflicted 
several times by the plague. 2. Of the plague that is caused by the infection of the air, here, by the grace of God, 
there is almost nothing to fear, [though] we may well fear of that which comes by contagion, to which maritime 
cities tend to be subject, on account of the foreigners and goods which by sea and by land come from all parts, near 
and afar. 3. At present our city runs the risk of being struck by plague more easily than usual on account of the 
superabundant and most needy multitudes, which is a thing I see apt to issue several sorts of inconveniences, all of 
which dangerous indeed. 4. Woe betide us if today, upon finding here a [case of the] plague we could not obtain a 
great supply of grains to last us many months. 5. The plague sometimes gives the opportunity, and ease to foreigners 
to invade the State of that Prince, or Republic that is afflicted by such disease). See also B.VIII.27, ‘Limosine’ and 
‘Lazaretto’; F.VI.22, ‘Annona, o sia ufficio dell’Abondanza’.



plague and politics in genoa (1528-1664) 9

In a system of cross-references between different entries in the dictionary, Spinola broke down 
analytically his views on the relation between plague, poverty, political instability, and the danger 
of riots and conspiracies.35 Throughout the manuscript, however, the events of 1575-1576 recur 
as a constant preoccupation, as they were also for Pallavicino. We see this in his explication of 
the causal links between the threats of plague and foreign invasion given under 5. above, which 
echoes Pallavicino’s denunciation of Charles Emmanuel I and reinforces the interpretation of 
the figurative contagion in the light of the real, and vice versa. On a different level, however, and 
in keeping with his rationalist positions, Spinola dismissed the notion that the disease could be 
the work of plague-spreaders and denounced as charlatans those who subscribed to it or, worse, 
exploited it for their own private ends. In this connection, his chief targets were the city’s affluent 
grain-merchants (who clearly stood to capitalise on the fear of plague as much as its consequences) 
and eminent physicians.36 The latter, Spinola had always held in special contempt; but, more 
generally, his hostility towards the ‘charlatans’ is a symptom of old nobility fears (as the class to 
which Spinola belonged) in the face of a rising bourgeoisie that was becoming better polished 
and educated, more numerous, and more vocal in its claims to government.37 Once again, the 
plague was a political issue and an indicator of a fracture in the body politic of the city.

Leaving aside the particular motives for political controversy, Spinola’s framing of the 
unsettled issue of infection was consistent with that of his friend Giovanni Battista Baliani, the 
author of a Trattato della pestilenza, generally acknowledged as ‘politician and scientist of Euro-
pean renown’ (Preto 1987, 21), and a friend of Galilei’s. His observations of the 1630 plague 
in Milan had convinced Baliani that ‘not contagion, but putrid air-borne vapours’ (22) were 
behind plague infections and led him to dismiss as unsubstantiated the theory of intentional 
propagation (through ointments and the poisoning of food and water supplies).

The most violent outbreak of plague of the Genoese old regime came with the wave that 
first hit Naples, in 1656-1657, at the end of a crisis that was to upset the entire system of the 
Republic’s international relations. In the early months of 1654, the century-old alliance between 
Genoa and Madrid suddenly found itself on the verge of collapse, inaugurating a spell of two years 
(1654-1655) that were to mark one of the lowest points in their relations. With the Monarquía 
facing insolvency and failing to meet its financial obligations to the Genoese, mutual recrimination 
soon gave way to diplomatic and trade reprisals, eventually leading to military threats. As the 
main early outbreaks of the 1656-1657 plague occurred in Sardinia (then a Spanish dominion), 
the measures adopted by Genoa to contain the infection came to overlap and be confused with 
the hostilities already in place: when the Genoese authorities ordered several ships to be burnt 
with their entire cargo, ostensibly as a sanitary measure, Madrid retaliated by freezing the assets 

35 AAV, Fondo Pio 28.V, A. Spinola, Osservazioni, Piaghe della Republica di Genova, c. 130v; ASCGe, 1072, 
Fosse di grano; BUG, B.VIII.26, ‘Discordia Civile’, ‘Disuguaglianza Civile’, ‘Divisione degli habitatori della Città’, 
‘Fattioni’, ‘Fame and ‘Fondachi’; B.VIII.27, ‘Guerra’, ‘Guerra Civile’ and ‘Gocciole publiche’; B.VIII.28, ‘Plebe’ 
and ‘Popolo della Città’. See also Ceccarelli 2018a, 97-98.

36 BUG, B.VIII.28, ‘Peste’: ‘Mi sono accorto più volte, in atto prattico, che coloro i quali vendono grani, 
si servono, come di luogo topico, di sparger volentieri ch’abbiamo la peste da vicino, elefanti di formiche, per far 
crescere il prezzo de grani’ (I have often seen it occur in practice, that those who sell grains resort to the argument, 
and spread the rumour at leisure, that the plague is in our proximities, [making] elephants out of ants, so as to 
inflate the price of their grains). See also B.VIII.25, ‘Bussole’; B.VIII.26, ‘Donne’; B.VIII.27, ‘Medici’: ‘chi vuol 
viver sano, stia lontano da i Medici … i Medici possono ammazzar gli huomini impunemente’ (whoever wishes to 
live healthily should keep away from Physicians … Physicians may kill any man with impunity).

37 See, inter alia, Bertini 1699; Gandini 1757; Pitrè 1910, 90-98; Camporesi 1981, 81-89; Brambilla 1982, 
79-180; Brambilla 1984, 3-147; Gentilcore 1997, 93-131; Pasini 2004, 445-488; Pastore 2006, 15-26; Andretta 
2008, 207-255; Benvenuto 2013; Cosmacini 2018.



alessia ceccarelli10

of the Republic’s transactors (Casoni 1831, 392-393; Vitale 1934, viii; Lagomarsino 1976, 410; 
Kirk 2011, 527-538; Pastore 1991). The alliance with Spain that had been cemented in the early 
days of the oligarchic Republic (1528) was clearly at an end; meanwhile, following decades of 
growing tensions, Genoese relations with the Holy See also took a sharp negative turn as Genoa 
denied its military support to Venice in the Cretan War (1645-1669). In an audience with the 
Genoese ambassador in September 1656, the newly elected Pope, Alexander VII Chigi, dubbed 
the Republic a State ‘privo di amici’ (friendless).38 As the infection came to a climax, Genoa ex-
perienced a period of deep isolation in which even postal exchanges came to a virtual standstill, 
as we learn from the letters of Filippo Spinola, Genoa Postmaster general. After years of acting 
as a trusted courier between the Roman Curia and the Madrid nunciature, on 25 January 1657 
Filippo Spinola wrote to the pope’s nephew Flavio Chigi to beg that he be granted some time 
to re-organise his now deserted offices, stacked with neglected parcels and letters: the plague, he 
wrote, had caused the death ‘di tutti li miei ufficiali’ (of my entire staff).39

With greater evidence than in previous occasions, plague encroached on the Republic 
from without and, while public gatherings were known to increase the danger and needed to 
be limited as far as possible, the Genoese government at the same time strove to foster cohesion 
among the community in the struggle against a common enemy (Casoni 1831; Lagomarsino 
1976, 409-429; Niccoli 1999; Taviani 2021, 89-107).

3. Prayers, Benedictions, and Relics as Antidotes

The range of devotional practices to which the Genoese resorted at times of pestilence deserve 
a special chapter in this discussion. The belief that political disorder and conflict were related 
to moral and spiritual disorder, at both the collective level and the individual, quite logically 
paired with the belief that acts of spiritual and physical cleansing such as prayer, benedictions, 
the worship of relics, wakes, and fasts could offer remedy. The damning representation of the 
Duke of Savoy and of the leaders of the 1627-1628 conspiracies by Giulio Pallavicino and other 
Genoese intellectuals illustrate one slant of this conflation of individual morality and political 
deed (Dupront 1993, 398-457; Ceccarelli 2018a, 105-157).

Going back half a century to the plague that came in the aftermath of the civil wars, we find 
a rather unique combination of civic, political, and medical themes delivered in the devotional 
forms of a prayer against the plague of 1578 (‘Preghera per ra peste de 1578’) (Verdino 1978, 
106-111). The prayer was composed by Paolo Foglietta in the form of a vernacular poem and 
intended for all the people of Genoa to understand and recite. During the civil wars, Foglietta 
had initially urged the alliance of the new patriciate with the populares, but then decided that 
the peace settlement between the old patriciate and the new was the only viable course of action 
and backed it. In his own time, Paolo Foglietta was a poet and intellectual greatly admired by 
Torquato Tasso (arguably the greatest contemporary poet), although the achievements and 
reputation of his brother, Oberto Foglietta, eventually overshadowed his own so that Paolo was 
ultimately forgotten.40 What we find in the ‘Preghera’ is a statement of civic engagement and a 

38 The pope ‘s’introdusse con ponderare la disgratia della Republica, in esser così poco fornita di amici, comme-
morando fra i male affetti Spagnuoli, Venetiani, Gran Duca e Savoia’ (ASGe, AS, LM, R, 2356, 2365, Agostino Pinelli, 
2 September, 1656) (opened by pondering the misfortune of the Republic, as having so few friends, citing among 
its ill associations the Spanish, Venetians, the Grand Duke and Savoy). See also Bacchion 1943; Pastine 1952, 5-23.

39 AAV, Segreteria di Stato, Particolari 36, Filippo Spinola to Flavio Chigi, Genova, 25 January, 1657, c. 17r. 
40 Having risen to fame in the civil wars, Oberto then became one of the Republic’s chroniclers. On Paolo 

and Oberto Foglietta, see Cotignoli 1905, 121-175; Vazzoler, 1970, 85-115; Verdino 1978, 105-125; Savelli 1980, 
91-92; Savelli 1981, 39, 185; Costantini 1986, 253; Bitossi 1990, 38-39.  



plague and politics in genoa (1528-1664) 11

powerful political and moral message, delivered in the Genoese vernacular in preference to the 
more literary (and remote) Tuscan. Composed in 1578 at the very early signs of the new epidemic 
(and right at the end of the conspiracy headed by Bartolomeo Coronata, of the new patriciate),41 
the prayer never actually went to print; it remained among Foglietta’s other manuscripts, proba-
bly because the full outbreak of plague (1579-1580), with its heavy death toll, plunged the city 
into a state of mourning that was to last for decades, causing the tenor and intent of the prayer 
(calling onto God to avert plague from the city) to appear superseded by events. The point of 
the ‘Preghera’, that is, had been to ward off plague alongside the preventative measures put in 
place by the authorities, as well as to foster concord among the Genoese: Foglietta truly hoped 
a mass act of devotion could forestall the risk of widespread infection and persuade the several 
city factions, including the populares, to lay aside their political claims. Popular dissent was far 
from quelled, however, kindling a trail of conspiracies that was to last five decades. When we 
look at the wording, we see Foglietta proposing a political solution to discord and infighting, 
aiming for unity among the Genoese over spiritual consolation. Explicit reference is made to 
the 1575-1576 struggles, amid other references to aspects of internal politics: the second stanza 
(ll. 5-10), thus addresses war and division and paints a vivid picture of the old nobles forced into 
voluntary exile and fleeing the city, as clashes with the new and the populares loomed. While 
‘fiacca’ (feeble) in literary terms and inclining to ‘mugugno’ (whining) (Vazzoler 1970, 87-106; 
Verdino 1978, 108), the prayer testifies to the way plague infection and political contagion were 
bound together in the memory of the Genoese and remains rather exceptional, for its times, 
when judged on the merits of its linguistic features, contents, and expiatory ends.

The sequence of stanzas in the prayer is clearly defined: it opens with a supplication (ll. 
1-28), followed by a description of the socio-economic consequences of the plague (ll. 29-52), 
a glorification of the Christian values shared by the Genoese (champions of the Church and 
leaders in the Crusades, ll. 53-83), an admission of collective moral and political guilt (for 
sparking off the civil wars), and finally closes on the prayer proper (begging forgiveness and 
divine protection, ll. 83-195) (Verdino 1978, 108-109; Niccoli 1999; Hammerling 2008). As 
a sample from this lengthy composition, let us take some of the more poignant stanzas from 
the first and final section (supplication and admission of sin/prayer):

Da ra peste esta cittè
guarda ben pietoso Dè
che goardase a no pò lè
senza Ti da morbitè. (ll. 1-4)42

Ti vei pù che pe ra goerra
d’esta nostra divixon
ri chiù ricchi d’esta terra
drizà testa chiù no pòn
e in negiella sforzè son 
de lassà questa cittè. (ll. 5-10)43

41 ASCGe, 353, Giulio Pallavicino, Narratione della congiura che l’anno 1577 seguì nella Città di Genova (Nuti 
1983; Ceccarelli 2018a, 33-38, 47, 54-58, 80 and 89-92). 

42 (From the plague, merciful God, protect this city, for it cannot protect itself, without You, from the epidemic). 
This opening strophe is then repeated at the close of the prayer, ll. 192-195. The text is reported as transcribed and 
translated from the Genoese vernacular into Italian by Verdino 1978, 113-125.

43 (You see also that, because of the war caused by this division among us, the richest in this land can no longer hold 
up their head and in shame must abandon this city).



alessia ceccarelli12

Ro Comun nostro meschin
Per Ti libero è restao
de che gratie senza fin 
A Ti rende questo stao
ma de peste esse amorbao
ro meschin teme aura assè. (ll. 17-22)44 

Como Ti Poere Corteize
da Tiranni forestè
defendessi esto paeize
così goarde ancora lè
d’angonaggie e morbitè
ch’è pezò dra guerra assè. (ll. 23-28)45

Confessemo Cristie ancora
che derrè ri vitij andemo
de luxuria, pompa e gora
ni a ra drita ande voggiemo
perché ancora partezemo
chi rovina esta cittè. (ll. 83-88)46

Fa che drita ra baranza
dra giustizia staghe ben
perchè torta per usanza
ra tèn spesso ri cittèn
e se drita a no sta ben
torta ancon va ra cittè. (ll. 173-178)47

The main themes from Foglietta’s prayer were later addressed by Andrea Spinola (he, too, a 
steadfast ‘repubblichista’, a firm supporter of the Republic, though far from an egalitarian), 
who saw opulence as the plague of any government, particularly in a republic: 48 ‘la Corrottela 
che vien dal lusso si può dir veramente la peste di qualunque sorte di governo, ma in spetie 
delle Republiche libere, nelle quali, come i costumi dei cittadini cominciano ad essere corrotti 
dal lusso, snervati gl’animi, et i corpi ancora si comincia a correr all’in giù, verso l’occaso’.49

44 (Our poor Municipality thanks to You remained free, and for that this State renders endless thanks to You, 
but now the poor have great fear of being infected by the plague).

45 (In the way that You, gentle Father, defended this land from foreign tyrants, so again protect it from torments 
and the epidemic, which are far worse than war).

46 (We further confess, o Christ, that we persist in the sins of lust, vainglory and gluttony, and do not seek the 
right path, because we still side with those who are the ruin of this city).

47 (Hold the scales of justice level, for our citizens are wont to make them awry, and if justice is not level, 
awry goes the city too).

48 The importance of social and political harmony; the advocation of a return to commerce and manufacture 
(as several Genoese now devoted themselves to finance alone); the condemnation of opulence, vogues, and the 
ostentation of wealth; the moral corruption of youths  (Vazzoler 1970, 85-115; Verdino 1978, 105-125). See BUG, 
B.VIII.27, ‘Lusso’; Spinola 1981; Ceccarelli 2018b. 

49 BUG, B.VIII.26, ‘Corrottela’ (The Corruption brought by opulence may well be called the plague of any 
form of government, but especially of free Republics, in which, as the morals of the population start to be corrupted 
by opulence, minds become weakened, and [so do] the bodies and then begins a downhill race, towards decline).



plague and politics in genoa (1528-1664) 13

Hence, the importance Spinola too accorded to intercessional prayer, especially as a collective 
ritual. There are entries in his dictionary detailing the types of prayer that befit the Republican 
order (free cities) and those that should instead be banned. It was proper for the Genoese to pray, 
as congregations or individuals, in churches or private oratories, firstly for the preservation of 
the ‘Signoria’ (viz. the Republic), the Pope, and the Empire.50 Overall, Spinola believed prayer 
gatherings, the public delivery of sermons (‘orazioni fatte in pubblico’), and other devotional 
rites (processions and prayers of contrition) had the power to strengthen political unity and 
restore purity in the minds and conscience of individuals. They were, that is, a formidable and 
necessary tool, particularly in facing epidemics, famines, war, conspiracies, and other such crises.51

Not long before, Paolo Sarpi, the renowned controversialist and defender of the jurisdiction-
al autonomy of the Republic of Venice against the Interdict (1605-1606), had also emphasised 
the value of collective prayer. Around 1610, as the ferment caused by the recent clash with 
Rome had not yet died down, Sarpi set to write the first two chapters of a treatise that was never 
completed and has only recently come to light (Della potestà de’ Prencipi) (Of the authority of 
Princes), arguing that the highest authority in a Republic (‘Principe repubblicano’) ranked equal 
with an absolute prince. Under heading 23 of the treatise, Sarpi elaborated on the political 
functions served by collective prayer: ‘Che il Prencipe deve far osservar il commandamento di 
Dio, che siano fatte per lui continue preghiere publiche nella Chiesa’ (2006, 76).52

Conflicts between Genoa and the Holy See were generally less acute and never led to an 
interdict, though tensions peaked several times during the first half of the seventeenth century. 
Here too, the function of public prayer was a point of contention. A few years after Sarpi had 
written on the subject,53 the ‘Collegi’ of the Genoese Republic ordered that all sung masses (in 
churches and convents belonging to the state and in private liturgies alike) include a prayer 
pro Republica, invoking God’s protection from all calamities, and from pestilence especially. 
The vicar general refused to comply and immediately wrote to Rome, which soon banned the 
new prayer.54

50 Praying for the generality of Christian princes would only come later. To Spinola’s mind, his fellow citizens 
should abstain especially from praying for foreign princes and ministers (BUG, B.VIII.27, ‘Oremus pro Imperatore 
nostro’ and ‘Orationi fatte in publico’; B.VIII.28, ‘Preghiere publiche’; B.VIII.29, ‘Viva la Signoria’). See also de 
Vivo 2012, especially section 2.4.1 (‘I sermoni’).

51 ASCGe, 106.B.3, ‘Congregationi, o siano Compagnie’. See also Chiu 2017; Chiu 2019, 27-44.
52 (That the Prince must enforce God’s commandment, that constant public prayers be promoted by him in 

the Church). See also Muir 1981, 23-48, 76-106; Infelise 2014, especially ch. I (‘Il principe è il tutto’) (The Prince 
is everything).

53 Most likely around 1613. Head of the diocese of Genoa was then Orazio Spinola, created cardinal in 1606, 
AAV, Misc. Arm. I, vol. 153, cc. 151r-152v.

54 The Roman Curia judged the new prayer the equivalent of a pro Rege, a customary form of prayer under 
absolute monarchies: allowing it would have been the same as implicitly promoting the Republic to the rank of a 
Sovereignty. It was also feared the ‘Republican’ prayer would supplant invocations to the Papacy and the Church 
(the pro Pontefice and pro Ecclesia), AAV, Misc. Arm. I, vol. 153, c. 152v: ‘Fece instanza li dì passati la Republica di 
Genova al Vicario del Sig. Card. Spinola ch’ordinasse a tutti sacerdoti, secolari, et regolari, che nelle messe cantate, 
et private si aggiungesse un’oratione pro Republica. Ma come cosa nuova si scusò il Vicario di non poterlo fare senza 
darne prima conto al Signor Cardinale, et che se dalla Republica ne fusse richiesto havria facilmente procurato d’ot-
tenere da Roma la gratia per quanto havesse potuto. Et perché sotto questa forma si verrebbe a levare quasi l’oratione 
solita pro Pontefice, nel pro Ecclesia, ha voluto metter in consideratione quel che passa, parendoli anco disdicevole 
che di ciò non li sia stata fatta parola alcuna dalla Repubblica, et di tutto raccomanda il secreto’ (Some days ago 
the Republic of Genoa made a motion to the Vicar of Cardinal Spinola that he order all secular and regular priests 
to add an oration pro Republica to all sung and private masses. This being a new thing, the Vicar excused himself 
for not being able to comply without first informing the Cardinal, and [added] that if the Republic requested him 



alessia ceccarelli14

A far graver contention arose at the end of 1637, when Genoa crowned its doge and 
proclaimed the Virgin Mary State sovereign.55 The ensuing dispute worsened during the pon-
tificate of Innocent X Pamphilj (1644-1655) when it centred particularly on the matter of the 
Mandylion (‘Holy Face of Edessa’), an ancient icon and relic believed to be a true likeness of 
Christ and held most sacred by the Genoese. The Roman Curia and archbishop Stefano Durazzo 
(1635-1664) had a plan to suppress the Basilian order, the ancient keepers of the church of 
Saint Bartholomew in which the Mandylion was held, and install the Barnabites in their place. 
The contention was, in fact, political, and rested on the loyalty the Basilians had shown towards 
the Republic (a loyalty that had been won through the conferment of numerous privileges 
over the centuries); the Genoese government thus challenged the suppression of the Basilian 
order by the Roman Curia and eventually ordered the occupation of the convent by its armed 
forces.56 Meanwhile, a narrative was built around the Mandylion that glorified the sacred bond 
that tied the relic to the republican institutions. Thus, in 1639, the canon penitentiary of Saint 
Bartholomew’s, Agostino Calcagnino, composed a book around the story of the Mandylion and 
the miracles it had performed to save the city from calamities and enemy attacks, causing the 
French to flee, for instance, and healing numerous Genoese (Calcagnino 1639; see also Bitio 
1640). The founding legend relates to the plague of 1383-1384, which had been killing people 
at a rate of 900 deaths a week, Calcagnino and father Antero Maria Micone later estimated 
(the latter was a Discalced Augustinian who actively fought the plague of 1656-1657) (Pescetto 
1846, 20). The plague of 1383-1384, Calcagnino duly noted, had also issued from the political 
crisis that ensued in 1363 following the death of Simon Boccanegra (whose re-election as doge 
had depended on the vote of the populares), which came at the height of a struggle among city 
factions and was probably due to poisoning. His successor and friend, Leonardo Montaldo, 
restored peace to the city, but soon had to face the greater threat posed by the plague. Taking 
the plague as a clear sign of God’s displeasure, archbishop Giacomo Fieschi had ordered public 
acts of worship involving prayers and the bearing of holy relics in procession, but the plague 
continued to rage. That was when Montaldo, who had brought the Mandylion from Constan-
tinople and secretly kept it in his palace, decided to make a gift of it to the city and place it 

to do so he would easily endeavour to obtain such concession from Rome to the best of his powers. And because 
under this new form the customary prayer for the Pope, as part of the pro Ecclesia, would be all but eliminated, he 
has thought fit to subject the matter to consideration, further deeming it amiss that the latter fact had not been 
mentioned by the [representatives of the] Republic, and recommends the matter be kept secret).

55 A decree issued on 29 December 1637 established the doge be attired in purple robe, and that on all sol-
emn occasions wear the royal mantle and crown (Volpicella 1921; Vitale 1941, 29; Bottaro Palumbo 1991, 35-49; 
Zunckel 2011, 145-191).

56 ASGe, AS, LM, R, 2356, Cattaneo, letters from 19 and 30 January, 2 and 23 February, 23 and 30 March, 13 
April, 20 July, 5 October, 30 November, 1647; 2357, Gio. Battista Lazagna, letters from 22 May and 20 June 1649; 
2358, Gio. Battista Lazagna, letters from 25 September, 29 October, 2 and 12 November, 20 and 30 December 
1650; 2358, Lazzaro Maria Doria, letters from 5, 12, 15 and 19 March, 12, 17, 22 and 28 April, 20 May, 10 and 17 
June 1651; 2359, The government to Lazzaro Maria Doria, letters from 11 March, 3 and 29 April, 12 and 28 May, 2 
June, 27 September, 6 November, 15 December, 1651; 2359, Lazzaro Maria Doria, letter from 23 September 1651; 
2360, Lazzaro Maria Doria, letters from 23 July, 17 August, 7 September, 26 October, 16 November, 9 December 
1652; 2361, The government to Lazzaro Maria Doria, letters from 15 January and 19 July 1652; 2361, Lazzaro 
Maria Doria, letters from 16 March, 7 and 28 June, 7 September, 2 and 22 November, 27 December 1652; 2362, 
Gio. Battista Lazagna, letters from 14 and 30 November 1650, 6 and 12 February 1651; 2362, The government to 
Lazzaro Maria Doria, letters from 7 and 28 March 1653; 2363, Agostino Pinelli, 21 March 1654; 2364, Agostino 
Pinelli, letters from 17 July, 20 and 28 October, 27 November 1655; 2365, Agostino Pinelli, letters from 15 and 
22 January 1656; Barelli 1707, II and 329-330; Dufour Bozzo 2005, 69-88; Moroni 1840-1854, IV and 180-181; 
Torre 1995, xi-xx; Müller 2005, 89-108; Origone 2007, 105-115. 



plague and politics in genoa (1528-1664) 15

under the custody of the Basilians (whose origins as an order were Eastern, as were those of 
the precious relic). As Calcagnino relates the story, Montaldo died of plague immediately after 
making his will, but the plague finally subsided. The grieving Genoese honoured his death 
with a solemn state function and the commission of a statue to be placed inside the cathedral.57

In 1656, not long after the publication of Calcagnino’s book, and in the very year in 
which the Barnabites replaced the suppressed order of the Basilians as custodians of Saint 
Bartholomew’s and the Mandylion, a new epidemic broke out dramatically. This epidemic was 
eventually conquered as the Genoese government resumed amicable relations between the Holy 
See and archbishop Durazzo, who never abandoned his post at Genoa during the plague, min-
istering to the sick and assisting the poor with the help of his own family (Lagomarsino 1976, 
420; Calcagno and Ferrando 2019, 117-147). We have a detailed record of the devotional acts 
that were ordered against this outbreak by local historian Filippo Casoni (1831). At the first 
signs of plague in the autumn of 1656, for instance, a council of theologians gathered and put 
a ban on all social events and individual behaviours that ran counter to religious piety (balls 
and other parties, inappropriate styles of dress, etc.); it also prescribed the dedication of new 
places of worship to the Virgin Mary, fasts, prayers, supplications for God’s forgiveness, and 
the celebration of octaves for St. John the Baptist and St. Bernard across the state (Lagomarsino 
1976, 415-419). The ‘Collegi’ approved all of the religious council’s deliberations, while the 
Genoese resident ministers at the Holy See, Agostino Pinelli and Agostino Franzone, sought 
the consent of the Sacred Congregation of Rites for the new octaves.58 Specifically, Pinelli wrote 
to the ‘Collegi’: ‘veggo, con estremo mio sentimento, andarsi sempre più avanzando nella città 
i timori del contaggio, non ostante la grandissima premura della loro vigilanza in procurar di 
tenerlo lontano. Io ho confidenza che Dio benedetto, mediante l’opportuno ricorso delle loro 

57 ‘Ma perché ben poco durano le mondane felicità, fu amareggiato sì lodevole reggimento da una fiera pestilenza 
che oppresse e danneggiò fuor di modo lo Stato Genovese, ed assai tosto crebbe di tal maniera, che per ogni settimana 
dentro di Genova novecento huomini e più cadevano estinti. Non erano pigri e rimessi i Magistrati a’ quali era ap-
poggiata la cura d’abbatter quest’Idra, che tutto dì germogliava terrori e morti. E Giacomo Fiesco, Arcivescovo in que’ 
tempi, da gli humani rimedij ricorse a i Divini: posciaché mosso da compassione e da carità verso la sua Greggia, col 
Capitolo e canonici della catedrale, impose publiche preghiere per placar l’offesa Maestà d’Iddio: e con tutto il clero 
e popolo religiosamente intravenne ad una divota e supplichevole Processione, nella quale con molta pietà e lagrime 
si portarono le più segnalate reliquie, che in Genova si venerassero. Non con minor providenza si segnalò in questo 
avvenimento il saggio Duce; peroché non tralasciava cosa alcuna che potesse giovare a rimetter quel fiero morbo, invi-
gilando arditamente alla cura de’ suoi cittadini, e posponendo la propria vita alla salvezza commune. Ond’egli tosto ne 
cadde infermo, tocco dal corrente veleno. Conobbe il christiano Principe il suo pericolo, e per disporsi a render conto 
al supremo Giudice di sé, e de’ suoi Popoli, chiamato a sé il confessore … . purgò con una diligente e seria confessione 
i suoi peccati’ (Calcagnino 1639, 88-89) (But because worldly happiness does not last, such laudable Government 
was vexed by a fierce pestilence, which oppressed, and inordinately damaged the State of Genoa, and soon developed 
to such extent, that for every week inside Genoa nine hundred men, and more fell deceased. The Magistrates were 
not lazy, or remiss, upon whom rested the charge of destroying such Hydra, which all day germinated terrors, and 
deaths. And Archbishop Giacomo Fieschi at that time from human remedies resorted to the divine: and so moved by 
compassion, and by mercy towards his Flock, with the Chapter and Canons of the Cathedral he ordered public prayer 
to placate the offended Majesty of God: and with all of the Clergy, and population, religiously formed a devout, and 
supplicatory Procession, in which with great piety, and tears were borne the most notable Relics that were venerated 
in Genoa. No lesser Carefulness was shown in these circumstances by the wise Doge; for the fact that he neglected 
nothing, that could help remit the fierce disease, courageously attending to the assistance of his fellow citizens, and 
putting his own life after the common salvation. Whereby he soon fell ill, struck by the raging poison. The Christian 
Prince understood the peril he was in, and in order to be ready to account for himself and for his people before the 
supreme Judge, having summoned the Confessor … atoned for his sins with a scrupulous and serious confession).

58 ASGe, AS, LM, R, 2365, Agostino Pinelli, letters from 2, 23 and 26 December 1656; 2366, Agostino 
Franzone, 28 July 1657. 



alessia ceccarelli16

deliberationi, sia per placarsi e che vorrà … farci la gratia’.59 He was hoping for the ‘intercessione 
della Vergine Santissima Nostra Protettrice’60 and stated his willingness to beseech the Pope 
for ‘qualche Indulgenza’ (some Indulgence) as well as permission ‘di far l’ottava di S. Giovanni 
Decollato, e di S. Bernardo per tutto il Dominio della Republica’.61 Franzone, for his own part, 
wrote that ‘in tempi così calamitosi’ (at such times of calamity) further occasions for collective 
prayer were required, together with acts of repentance and good works,62 as these were the only 
remedies that could bring an end to ‘the onslaught of death’ (Delumeau 1987, 168).

In spite of these efforts, by November 1656 it was obvious the epidemic was far from over 
and a solemn blessing of the entire city was arranged. The most treasured of relics, the ashes 
of John the Baptist, patron saint of Genoa, were taken to the top of the dome of the cathedral 
for three nights running and raised to the sky in a ritual that involved hymns, prayers, and the 
tolling of bells in churches across the city, while the inhabitants were ordered to stay in their 
houses with their families and servants, kneel, and pray for God’s mercy and the intercession 
of St. John the Baptist. The liturgy was again performed on 4 December, and once again was 
closely and devoutly attended by everyone. The plague, however, only really ended in the late 
months of 1657. On 26 December, the ‘Collegi’ sponsored city-wide celebrations, with a solemn 
mass accompanied by the Te Deum, the knell of all city bells, blank shots from the city fleet, 
and music all over the city. The ceremonies in thanksgiving, it is recorded, were also actively 
attended by archbishop Durazzo (Lagomarsino 1976, 421-429).

Over the sixteenth and seventeenth century, we may conclude, political connotations 
attached to outbreaks of plague in Genoa with particular emphasis on its causes and possible 
remedies. Against the various forms of plague that afflicted the Republic (Salbriggio 1655; 
Bitossi 2009, 105), frequent recourse was made to prayer – sometimes even with preventative 
intent. It became the ruling class to support these rituals of supplication and acts of charity, 
warned Andrea Spinola, which were necessary to temper the proverbial pride of the Genoese 
and dampen internal rivalries and conflict, fostering Christian piety, instead, and peace among 
the population.63 It was a duty of all Republics to avoid political strife and civil wars ‘come la 
peste’ (like the plague), he wrote, which sets in when the body politic weakens and the moral 
fibre of the population wears out.64

The 1656-1657 plague is recorded by Filippo Casoni, annalist of the Republic, as the 
‘greatest tragedy Genoa ever suffered’ (Parodi 2011, 14). Alongside numerous ex-votos, the 
impression left by the plague is captured in a canvas commissioned by the Senate to Domenico 
Fiasella that has only recently been recovered (having been lost and become part of a private col-
lection). Its atmosphere is ‘as monumental as it is despairingly tragic and lugubrious’ (Boccardo 
2020), showing the disintegration of the social, religious, and political body of the city. The 
cityscape is barely recognisable, affording no clear physical or temporal bearings but suspended, 

59 ASGe, AS, LM, R, 2365, Agostino Pinelli, 2 December 1656 (I see, to my great distress, the danger of 
contagion making advance in the city, in spite of their keen vigilance in procuring to keep it at bay. I trust that the 
blessed God, through the apposite provisions by them deliberated, shall be appeased and will incline to … have 
mercy on us).

60 (intercession of the Most Holy Virgin, Our Patron).
61 ASGe, AS, LM, R, 2365, Agostino Pinelli, 2 December 1656 (To recite the octave for St. John the Baptist, 

and for St. Bernard throughout the Domains of the Republic).
62 ASGe, AS, LM, R, 2366, Agostino Franzone, 7 July 1657. Accordingly, the Genoese government responded 

to this epidemic by making particularly generous provisions in aid of the poor (Lagomarsino 1976, 419). 
63 ASCGe, 106.B.3, ‘Congregationi, o siano Compagnie’; BUG, B.VIII.25, ‘Casaccie’; B.VIII.27, ‘Oratorij’.
64 BUG, B.VIII.27, ‘Guerra’; B.VIII.28, ‘Peste’.



plague and politics in genoa (1528-1664) 17

rather, in that state of repetitious immobility that is probably the most disconcerting feature of 
a wave of plague (Calvi 1981, 405). The civic and religious buildings in the background and 
the coulisses flanking the sides suggest the scene is set in the vicinity of the Palazzo ducale, the 
seat of government. The spirit of the city is captured by the lighthouse, in the same line of vi-
sion, but as a counterpoint, to the towering Reaper, its scythe raised, in the middle ground. As 
corpses are stacked and burnt, and the corpse-bearers either attend to their duties or plunder, 
Plague allegorised hovers over the city in a close visual likeness to traditional representations 
of Heresy (Parodi 2011, 19; Sansa 2006, 94).

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Archival Sources

AAV (Archivio Apostolico Vaticano):
Fondo Pio 28.V;
Misc. Arm. I, Vol. 153;
Segreteria di Stato, Napoli, Giulio Spinola, Vols. 54-55;
Segreteria di Stato, Particolari, Vol. 36.

ASGe (Archivio di Stato di Genova), AS (Archivio segreto):
LC (Lettere Consoli), T (Turchia), 2703, Ottavio Doria to government (letters from Smirne);
LM (Lettere Ministri), R (Roma):
2356, Cattaneo Cattaneo to government;
2357, Gio. Battista Lazagna to government; 
2358, Gio. Battista Lazagna to government/Lazzaro Maria Doria to government; 
2359, The government to Lazzaro Maria Doria/Lazzaro Maria Doria to government;  
2360, Lazzaro Maria Doria to goverment;
2361, The goverment to Lazzaro Maria Doria/Lazzaro Maria Doria to goverment;
2362, Gio. Battista Lazagna to goverment/The goverment to Lazzaro Maria Doria; 
2363, Agostino Pinelli to government; 
2364, Agostino Pinelli to government; 
2365, Agostino Pinelli to government; 
2367, Gio. Pietro Spinola to government; 
2371, Ferdinando Raggi to government.

ASCGe (Archivio Storico del Comune di Genova), mss:
132, R. Della Torre, Congiura di Giulio Cesare Vacchero;
341, G. Pallavicino, Vero e distinto ragionamento;
353, G. Pallavicino, Narratione della congiura che l’anno 1577 seguì nella Città di Genova;
1072, A. Spinola, Dizionario politico-filosofico;
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ASTo (Archivio di Stato di Torino):
CE (Corti estere), G (Genova), 1, Manifesto del popolo genovese;
C (Corte), Storia della Real Casa, 14, V. Castiglione, Della Vita, XXV;
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BUG (Biblioteca Universitaria di Genova), mss.:
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