Via Clavature

Behind the facade of building number ten lies the section of the former men's ward of the Hospital of Life. Twenty-five beds stood along the street; attendants kept watch nearby, while separate wards were set aside for the wounded and for women. The brotherhood acquired neighboring houses and courtyard plots until medical buildings occupied almost the entire block. For more than four centuries, patients were fed here, physicians were paid, and the dead were buried; now, a sign for the Museum of Health and Assistance hangs at the entrance.

The word “Clavature” remains on the sign. This was the name for locks and other locking devices opened with a key. In medieval Bologna, local blacksmiths made them; locksmiths formed a separate group within the blacksmiths' guild. In a document from thirteen fourteen, this stretch was described as the corner “where clavature are made.” The craftsmen left, merchants and establishments took over their workshops, and the name was first recorded as a street name in thirteen seventy-seven.

The largest establishment on Via Clavature also grew out of a craft, though a very different one. In twelve sixty, Raniero Fasani, a preacher from Perugia, came to Bologna. He sought to reconcile two hostile urban factions—the Geremei and the Lambertazzi. His followers were called Battuti, “those who beat themselves”: during penitential processions, they left their backs bare and lashed them with knotted ropes, repeating Christ's sufferings.

They failed to reconcile the opponents. But Raniero's Bolognese followers did not disperse after the processions. They began collecting donations to treat the sick and, around twelve seventy-five, set up a hospital here. They called it Ospedale della Vita—the Hospital of Life. Most medieval shelters gave travelers lodging and food for a few nights. The brotherhood on Via Clavature admitted specifically the sick and wounded, who needed care.

The first premises quickly became too small. Members of the brotherhood bought neighboring houses and courtyards one after another. In thirteen oh two, Bonicupro Lambertazzi, son of Castellano Lambertazzi, sold them half the plot on which part of the hospital already stood. A year later, another heir of the same family sold them the other half. The plot lay between Via Clavature and Pescherie, and the hospital buildings gradually occupied almost the entire block. Raniero's attempt to stop the feud failed; the property of one of the families involved in it helped expand the institution left behind by his preaching.

The large men's ward faced directly onto Via Clavature. It held twenty-five beds, including places for attendants. Next to it stood a small ward with nine beds for the wounded and a women's ward with twenty-six. Later, another ward was added above them. The brotherhood lived on donations, inheritances, and income from the premises it had acquired, and its members took on constant work far less conspicuous than a penitential procession: they fed patients, maintained the beds, paid physicians, and buried the dead.

The hospital admitted people here for four hundred sixty-five years. On June second, seventeen twenty-five, the patients were transferred to a new, more spacious building on Via Riva di Reno. After the Napoleonic reforms, other Bolognese hospitals were joined to it, and in eighteen fourteen the combined institution received the name Ospedale Maggiore—the Great Hospital. The modern hospital bearing this name now stands in another part of Bologna.

On Via Clavature, the Church of Santa Maria della Vita, the brotherhood's oratory, and the former hospital premises remained. They now house the Museum of Health and Assistance. Behind the facade of building number ten, the section where the men's ward with twenty-five beds stood along the street has been preserved.