THE INNOCENT AIR: GERONIMO GATTA AND HIS SOURCES

This essay deals with the physician Geronimo Gatta, author of a treatise on the plague in Naples in 1656 and with his library, which includes the classic sources of the Ancient Medicine, many treatises written at the end of Sixteenth century, as well as the aphorisms on plague written by Santorio Santorio (De statica medicina, 1634). The essay highlights also how Gatta, thanks to his direct experience and his readings, elaborates an etiology of the plague well founded and without ambiguities: he resolutely denies any value to the miasmatic paradigm, even if anyway he tries to do it without contesting Galen explicitly. The treatise shows a certain disappointment about how the epidemic had been dealt with and clarifies the lessons that can be drawn from the event. The physician does not quote any scientist prominent in Naples but it is highly probable that he was influenced by them.