Organizers: Carmel Ferragud (IILP-UV)  and Juan Vicente García Marsilla (Department of Medieval History and Historiographical Sciences and Techniques, Faculty of Geography and History, UV)

April 29, 2026. Faculty of Geography and History, Room F3.5.

ZOOM: https://uv-es.zoom.us/j/95521842729

10.00 a.m. Antoni Conejo da Pena: “Salut i atenció sanitària a l'antiga Roma”.

In ancient Rome, the deity of Health was actually a kind of allegory with an ambivalent meaning: on the one hand, it was supposed to have attributes that allowed it to placate an epidemic or disease, and on the other, it had political connotations linked to community salvation and well-being. In the case of suffering from an illness, in the pagan world it was customary to resort to the miraculous healings of divinities such as Asclepius or Hygiea, but often there was no other choice than to request the services of a doctor who was the one who had the knowledge, or the ability, to cure someone. In this regard,  the valetudinaria, a kind of field hospitals where wounded soldiers were cared for on the battlefield, were also of great relevance. Likewise, the Romans, and before that the Greeks, established the obligation to offer help or hospitality to any foreigner who asked for help —whether sick or not—, first in private homes, and over time, in buildings designed strictly for this purpose, the so-called xenodocheia or hostels for foreigners. With the triumph of Christianity, on the threshold of the fourth and fifth centuries, the institutions aimed at caring for the needy, the most vulnerable groups, the disabled and, logically, the sick multiplied, who would end up referring to hospitals that had already taken root in the medieval centuries.

10.45 a.m. Questions and discussion.

11.00 a.m. Andrea Martí Serrano: “Les dones i l’assistència als hospitals baixmedievals valencians (ss. XIV-XV)”.

In recent decades, several researchers dedicated to the history of hospitals in the Middle Ages have highlighted the need to highlight the presence of a plural healthcare practice in these institutions. Through this paper we propose to make a study of the multiplicity of curative pathways available in medieval hospitals through the rich documentation preserved in late medieval Valencian hospital institutions. The account books allow us to go into detail about the measures and mechanisms used in Valencian hospitals in the care of their inmates, which could range from the charcoal that was used to combat bed bug pests to the cultivation of medicinal plants that purified the environment, but which could also be used within the distillation processes or the preparation of remedies that were made within these centers. Both in its production and in its supply, the figure of women constituted a fundamental element, not only as internal workers, but also within the staff hired intermittently. Thus, the Valencian hospital institutions provide us with a very rich case study, which allows us to observe in more detail the particularities of the plurality of care that took place in them and the diversity of actors and actresses who intervened in it.

Speakers:

Antoni Conejo da Pena is Associate Professor of Art History and Academic Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Geography and History (UB). His research has focused mainly on the historical, social and architectural study of medieval hospitals and the early modern period, the result of which he has published many publications. In this sense, since 2012 it has coordinated "Els Abrils de l'Hospital", an international scientific meeting promoted by the IRCVM to discuss and publicize new research on care spaces and practices during medieval and modern times. He is also the author of multiple publications on Gothic painting, sculpture and especially architecture in Catalonia and Sicily. Finally, he has collaborated in the drafting of technical reports for buildings such as the Cathedral of Palma de Mallorca, the Seu Vella in Lleida, the Cathedral of Tarragona, the Coll de Balaguer Hospital (Hospitalet de l'Infant), the Palace of the Generalitat and the old Hospital of the Holy Cross in Barcelona.

Andrea Martí Serrano has a degree in History from the University of Valencia, where she later completed a master's degree in Cultural Heritage and a master's degree in History of Formation in the Western World. She has worked as a research technician in the Department of Medieval History and the Department of History of Science and Documentation, thanks to a contract from the INVESTIGO program (2023-2024). Currently, she is a doctoral student in the doctoral program in Historical and Social Studies on Science, Medicine and Scientific Communication and a member of the research projects Sciència.cat and Hospitalibus.