DOPO PASSAROWITZ: COMMERCIO, INFORMAZIONE E SANITÀ PUBBLICA FRA L’ADRIATICO E IL TIRRENO

Following the Peace of Passarowitz, the Mediterranean Sea saw an increase in the circulation of goods and people as well as of information, and also a wider informative system on how diseases spread. The essay offers a Mediterranean and European overview, focusing on the ports of Venice, Trieste and Livorno. It then considers the global debate on smallpox vaccination, and finishes considering the role of seaports in the 18th-century cultural, health and scientific information routes, as well as the continuous negotiation between institutions and social classes on health protection and freedom of commerce, that ended in creating new strategies and new communication products.