Bernardino Ramazzini e il suo De Morbis artificum diatriba

Abstract

Bernardino Ramazzini, after a rigorous training and constant industriousness in the clinical and epidemiological field, published, in Latin, in 1700 the first edition of the treatise on the diseases of artisans. He argues, based on his experience and his erudition, how various categories of workers get sick from the work they do. He invites his medical colleagues to attend as he did the homes of the poor and the artisan shops and to always ask their patients for the work they usually do. He passionately urges the State, the Princes, the merchants to pay the debts contracted towards the useful workers, encouraging everyone and even the workers themselves to implement preventive measures because it is preferable to prevent diseases than to cure them.