In this volume, various aspects of Southern European health care and poor relief are examined. Issues of charity and medicine are discussed both in their national and wider European context. By studying the crucial transitional period between the parish relief of the late medieval world and the state sponsored provision of the twentieth century much can be learned about how attitudes to the poor and sick changed over time and place.

Contents: Some closing and opening remarks, Andrew Cunningham; Health care and poor relief in southern Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, John A. Davis; Poor relief and health care in southern Europe, 1700-1900: The ideological context, Nicholas Davidson; Demand and charitable supply: poverty and poor relief in Austria in the 18th and 19th centuries, Martin Scheutz; Welfare provision in Castile and Madrid, Pedro Carasa; Poor relief and health care in 18th and 19th century Catalonia and Barcelona, Alfons Zarzoso; Poor relief, social control and health care in 18th and 19th century Portugal, Maria Antónia Lopes; The Pope, the beggar, the sick, and the brotherhoods: health care and poor relief in 18th and 19th century Rome, Martin Papenheim; Poor relief, enlightenment medicine and the Protomedicato of Parma, 1748-1820, David Gentilcore; Poverty, relief and hospitals in Naples in the 18th and 19th century, Brigitte Marin; Medicine for the poor in 18th and 19th century Bologna, Gianna Pomata; Welfare provision in Piedmont, Giovanna Farrell-Vinay; A journey of body and soul: the significance of the hospitals in southern, Catholic Europe for John Howard's views of health care and the creation of the utopian hospital, Ole Peter Grell; Index.

Ole Peter Grell, Andrew Cunningham