ItalBooks.com

La Verna Spezieria e Speziali

It is a book dedicated to the history and raison d’être of the work carried out by the Franciscan monks at the Verna Monastery in the medical and healthcare fields, and offers the reader a documented reconstruction of the places, people and events of the mystical world of the Verna Monastery and its Pharmacy. The book, edited by Alessandro Menghini, lecturer at the Pharmacy Faculty of Perugia University, and expert in the history of monastic pharmacies, was written by various authors, and coordinated by Father Fiorenzo Locatelli. The text itself is divided into three sections: the first section deals with pharmaceutical care in a religious context, and consists of a chapter on the origins, underlying reasons and development of this activity within the general framework of the religious orders. The second part examines the history of the Verna pharmacy, a fascinating subject dealt with using a wealth of information from the archives, by Anna Giorgi, historian at the Verna. This is followed by a description of the earthenware and glassware items used in the pharmacy. The third part of the book, on the other hand, first provides an account of the medicinal plants grown at the Verna, and then goes on to describe the daily lives of those living at the monastery, with the aid of some fascinating ‘photos taken during the 1920s. There is a wealth of illustrations, ranging from sixteenth-seventeenth century prints of the place, and historical ‘photos from the early 1900s, to a series of spectacular colour ‘photos of the pharmacy’s furnishings.

Alessandro Menghini, ordinary professor in Pharmaceutic Botany at the University of Perugia. He is publishing director at Aboca Editions.