Main description (English)

Historiography has provided numerous contributions on disease treatment and medical studies at the thirteenth-century papal curia, in part dealing with a dangerous problem that afflicted Rome in the Middle Ages, namely the epidemics of malaria that frequently broke out in the summer months (PARAVICINI BAGLIANI, Il corpo del papa, Turin 1994; ID., Medicina e scienza della natura alla corte dei papi nel Duecento, Spoleto 1991). A recent hypothesis addresses the possible biological differences between indigenous and allogenic members of the curia with respect to these epidemiological phenomena (CAROCCI, Baroni di Roma. Dominazioni signorili e lignaggi aristocratici nel Duecento e nel primo Trecento, Rome 1993). However, there has been little focus on the conclaves that took place during these epidemics and how much disease may have affected these elective assemblies. The objective of this contribution is to better investigate this topic, by means of a detailed analysis of all evidence available from.