The Mozarts, Who They Were Volume 2. Diego Minoia
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white ointment (lard, white lead);
- anti gout pills (cooked seaweed or sponge)
Despite the approximation of many diagnoses and related treatments, we must not underestimate the evolution that the rationalistic thought of the 1700s allowed for the development of medical science which, thanks to the experimental method, made great strides forward and paved the way for subsequent progress.
Precisely in the 18th century, especially from the second half, the practice of medicine began to take on the modern characteristics as we know them today.
Characters such as Giovanni Battista Morgagni (1682-1771) founder of pathological anatomy, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794) founder of modern chemistry, Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729-1799) scientist with many interests who was defined by Pasteur as "the greatest scientist who ever lived", Georges Buffon (1707-1788) the greatest naturalist of his time, Edward Jenner (1749-1823) discoverer of the smallpox vaccine, etc.
The development of medical science is accompanied by the transformation of hospitals from places of segregation of the sick, infamous prisons with very high mortality rates, to health care institutions where, albeit with extreme slowness, increasingly more hygiene and care systems were effectively making their way.
Bedside medicine (in which for centuries the medicus went to the patient's home to administer more or less effective treatments) was gradually replaced by hospital medicine along with consequent changes in the doctor-patient relationship.
The Austrian Emperor Joseph II in 1784, the year in which Wolfgang Mozart lived in Vienna reaping success and glory everywhere, promoted the foundation of the Allgemeines Krankenhaus (General Hospital).
However, the evolution of medical science did not prevent people, such as Leopold Mozart, from continuing to make use of traditional and commonly used self-care practices for a long time, the so-called "doctorless medicine" (diet, bloodletting, purge, ointments more or less dangerous to health, recipes taken from printed booklets, etc.) and characters not always prepared, such as apothecaries, surgeons and barbers continued to perform functions related to health, not to mention the charlatans who peddled concoctions of all kinds as miraculous solutions to all evil.
How can we not cite here a symbol of the charlatans of every era Doctor Dulcamara who, in Donizetti's "Elisir d'amore" staged in 1832, sold flasks of Bordeaux wine as a general remedy in the air "Hear, hear, rustic folk": Benefactor of men, repairer of evils, in a few days I will clear out, I will sweep the hospitals, and I want to sell health for the whole world. Buy it, buy it, I'll give it to you for cheap. This is the marvelous odontalgic liqueur, of mice and mighty destroying bugs, whose authentic certificates, stamped to be seen and read by each one I will do. For this specific, likeable mirifico of mine, a septuagenarian and valetudinary man, grandfather of ten children I am still to become.
For this reason Touch and Heal in a short week more than one afflicted young man ceased to cry. Or you, stiff matrons, do you yearn to rejuvenate? Your wrinkles uncomfortable with it erased. Do you, damsels, want to have smooth skin? You, gallant young people, forever have lovers? Buy my specific cure, I'll give it to you for a little while. It moves the paralytics, dispatches the apopletics, the asthmatics, the asphyxiates, the hysterics, the diabetics, heals tympanitides, scrofula and rickets, and even the liver pain, which in fashion became. Buy my specific cure, I'll sell it cheap.
The fears for the health of Wolfgang (above all) and Nannerl prompted the parents to vow to have masses recited in Salzburg in case of recovery: 4 masses at the Shrine of Maria Plan (not far from Salzburg) and 1 mass at the altar of the Child Jesus in the Loretokirche that was in the city. The costs of the masses were then to be deducted from the Mozarts' account with Hagenauer. Among the novelties that Leopold tells the Salzburg correspondents there was also the practice of inoculating smallpox which, he says, he was repeatedly invited to do to his children. Inoculation or variolation was introduced in Europe in 1722 by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, wife of the English ambassador to Constantinople, who had seen it practiced in Turkey. She had her first child inoculated and the second was even publicly inoculated at the English Court, as a demonstration of the efficiency of the method.
The positive result caused the entire English Royal Family to undergo inoculation. In Paris it seems that at the time when the Mozarts were present in the city it was a rather widespread fashion, so much so that laws were promulgated which, except for special permits, prescribed their practice in the city (to avoid contagions) while in the countryside it was allowed. Inoculation was a form of defense against smallpox, at the time the most widespread infectious disease in Europe, and consisted in exposing the subject to a mild form of the disease which allowed, in case of positive success, to immunize him from the most common forms, serious and often fatal. The practice, however, had serious risks both for the person subjected to inoculation (he could get sick with the most severe form) and for those who spent time with him during the active phase of the disease.
The risk therefore, for the Mozarts was particularly serious both at the level of possible infections and loss of earnings due to the forced isolation to which the inoculated subject had to be subjected. The practice continued to be used until 1796 when the vaccine introduced by Edward Jenner gradually led to the eradication of the disease.
In Paris, in that autumn / winter 1764, it snowed only once and the climate remained mild, at least this is what Leopold Mozart reports in his letters comparing the temperatures of the French capital with the much colder ones in Germany. On the other hand, the humidity and the rains were frequent, so much so that a silk rain cover was indispensable, which, apparently, almost everyone carried in the bag when they left the house.
The waterproof rain cover and the umbrella
Leopold was certainly used to protecting himself from the rain by using, like everyone in Europe up to that time, hoods or cloaks, so much so that he considered the rain cover a recent invention.
The fashion of the rain cover (note Leopold's use of the French term derived from parapluie) was imported to Paris from England, a territory with known characteristics of rainfall. In reality, the history of the rain cover derives from that, very ancient, of the parasol.
What we commonly call umbrella, in fact, is derived from its name its original meaning: to make shade.
This object is witnessed in ancient times in China and Japan as an attribute of Emperors and Samurai and a symbol of power reserved for them, but we have evidence of its use also in ancient Egypt, in classical Greece and in Imperial Rome.
The ceremonial parasol was used as a symbol of power also by the Popes, first, and later also by the Venetian Doges (who asked the Roman Pontiff for authorization to use it, too).
In epochs closer to us it seems that the custom of the parasol was brought to France (like many other things, including ice cream) by Caterina de 'Medici, in the 1500s, at the time of her marriage to Henry II.
From France the use of the parasol spread to England where in the 18th century, considering the prevailing climate in that territory, it was decided to use it also as a rain cover.
The new fashion then returned to France, where it became commonplace among the wealthier classes.
The frequent and abundant rains also caused the Seine to flood to the point, says Leopold, that many areas of Paris near the river were impassable and a boat had to be used to cross the Place de la Gréve (the current Town Hall square). In the same letter of 22 February 1764, Leopold Mozart announces that he plans to go to Versailles within 14 days to present the Opera before Wolfgang, the 2 Sonatas for harpsichord with violin accompaniment K6 and K7 (dedicated to Victoire, second daughter of King Louis XV) and the second Opera, Le and 2 Sonatas for harpsichord with violin accompaniment K8 and K9 (dedicated to Madame de Tessé, lady-in-waiting at the Court and animator of a famous cultural salon in Paris).
In a letter dated March 4, 1764, Leopold Mozart wants to dispel the prejudice, evidently widespread among his fellow citizens, that the French could not stand the cold. On the contrary, he writes, given that in Paris, unlike elsewhere, the shops of the artisans (tailor, shoemaker, saddler, cutler, goldsmith, etc.) remained open throughout the winter.
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