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1. Plague in Lisbon
- Louisiana State University Press
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1. Rodrigo Caro, Antigvedades, y principado de la ilvstrissima civdad de Sevilla.Y chorographia de sv convento ivridico, o antigva chancilleria [1634] (Seville: Ediciones Alfar, 1998), 62r–v. 1 plague in lisbon It is taken for certain that there is plague in Lisbon. —diego mexía Seville’s massive stone city hall, completed in 1564, shared the principal public plaza with a large Franciscan monastery as well as the Audiencia and the Royal Jail. The Plaza of San Francisco itself was the favorite site for both religious and secular spectacles. Bull- fights and horse games, autos-da-fé and processions from the nearby cathedral were common. Visits of important dignitaries to the city and major events, be they births, deaths, and marriages of royalty or military victories, all were celebrated in the city’s principal square. An enthusiastic city booster in the early seventeenth century, Rodrigo Caro, marveled at the beauty of the city hall as the“envy of all the nations.”He added up the number of greater and lesser officials who served in it, finding there were 147,“which makes it in both numbers and in quality, one of the most illustrious senates in all of Christendom.”1 On the morning of 21 October 1579 the city council of Seville met for its usual Wednesday gathering, presided over by the royal governor, the Count of Villar. Following other items of business, the veinticuatro Diego Mexía announced , “It is taken for certain that there is plague in Lisbon.” Furthermore, according to a letter dispatched from Lisbon on 8 October, “the situation is worsening in the city.” Mexía lamented that “the Portuguese have come fleeing into this city with their wives and children, and continue to do so.” He urged the city council to verify this alarming news and demanded immediate action, should it prove to be true. The Count of Villar concurred; after a short discussion , the cabildo members designated Diego Mexía and another veinticuatro, Bartolomé López de Mesa, to collect more information and to confer with the plague in lisbon | 15 2. AMS, sec. 10, 1579 [3]. 3. Ibid. appropriate people on what measures to take to protect the city. They were to give a full report to the governor so that the council could move quickly to avert the impending crisis.2 One of the councilors, Bartolomé de Hoces, suggested that several members , including Diego Mexía, should meet that same afternoon in the Count of Villar’s lodgings at the Alcázar to continue the discussion regarding “what would be expedient to do for the security and protection of this city and its land.” He also proposed that Don Diego de Portugal join Diego Mexía and Bartolomé López de Mesa as one of the commissioners of the plague. Most agreed, and in the end the officials added three more deputies to the commission : the veinticuatros Don Pedro Ponce, el Primero, Gaspar Ruiz de Montoya, and Don Andrés de Monsalve. The council asked the men to pay attention to the various issues related to the question and to inquire directly from those persons who had communication with the infected areas. The council members also agreed that anyone coming from Lisbon should be prevented from entering Seville and that the river approach should be guarded, because they assumed that the infection would arrive by ship. Before the meeting was adjourned, the Count of Villar named two additional deputies, the Marquis of Villamanrique and Melchor del Alcázar, and consented to meet the plague commission in his residence the following afternoon, giving the deputies time to gather more information .3 The measures to stop the plague from spreading differed little from those adopted in the fourteenth century when the Black Death reappeared in Europe after centuries of calm. In the wake of that horrendous calamity, Italian citystates established commissions consisting of respected citizens and physicians to deal with sanitation and disposal of the dead, as well as combating the disease itself. Florence, Venice, Lucca, and Perugia, for example, all took steps to keep foreigners outside the city walls. Pistoia issued some of the most stringent ordinances, including those designed to prevent travelers from infected areas from entering or bringing in old clothes. The authorities ordered meat markets to be inspected to ensure the food was fresh. They also prohibited large numbers of people from gathering at funerals and regulated the depths of graves. The city adopted new measures, some annulling...