My project investigates the relationship between ill-health and work in early modern Italy (ca.1550-1750). The overarching objective is to discover how workers discussed health problems with employers and, in turn, how employers responded. My key research question is: in a period of technological change, advances in medical sciences, fewer yet still devastating epidemics, and an increasing concern with regulating poverty, was there a shift in cultural attitudes to the inability to work through ill-health? Italy is a crucial site for analysis because it had a diverse workforce in highly urbanised areas while also being at the forefront of developing public health procedures in Europe. These procedures were directed at industries and jobs that could cause harm to health and also addressed issues related to poverty. The time frame merits study because concerns about the health consequences of working practices grew in this period, as demonstrated by a widely circulated medical treatise on the diseases of workers first published in 1700. My project will provide new perspectives on health and ill-health in early modern society, making a ground- breaking contribution to existing scholarship on experiences of illness, health in the domestic environment, and public health measures. Ill-health is broadly conceived, encompassing chronic illness, bouts of ill-health, injury, and periods of epidemic disease. Work is not defined by occupational titles as they limit the potential scope of enquiry. I follow the definition of work as ‘the use of time with the goal of making a living.' The project therefore considers both paid and unpaid activities, and pays particular attention to women’s work. Drawing on neglected sources including manuscript ‘sick notes’ found in administrative correspondence, medical treatises, and regulations created by employers, I examine what happened when workers became ill and evaluate the relationship between social status and responses to ill- health. For instance, was chronic illness less problematic for someone who was literate or who had access to a secretary to correspond with employers? Connections between domestic life and work were not tightly defined by hours or duties of work in early modern societies. My project will focus instead on key elements of these interactions at the time, notably working locations, such as workshops and offices; the impact ill-health had upon the home or household; and measures to protect workers. Using methodological approaches from the history of epistemology, I will determine how work was integrated into medical discourse on health. It considers contemporary anxieties around illness and work, and dangerous or difficult professions. I examine the obligations employers had to care for the health of their employees to shed new light on relationships between employee and employer. The project will situate occupational health as a fundamentally important research topic within pre-modern scholarship.
