Maria Pia Donato is an associate professor of Early Modern History at the University of Cagliari, Italy, and chargé de recherche at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut d’Histoire moderne et contemporaine of Paris, France. She is the author of Accademie romane. Una storia sociale, 1671-1824 (Naples 2000) and numerous essays on the political, social and cultural life of modern Rome, the history of medicine, and the history of science.

• Introduction. Part I Sudden Death and the Physician’s Role in Society: Fears; The medico-legal enquiry on sudden death, or: the truth of the body and the public role of physicians; From the dead to the living: medicine and public health in the early 18th century. Part II Sudden Death in Medical Theory and Practice: A new stance on death: the mechanical medicine of Lancisi’s De subitaneis mortibus (1707); The pathological gaze: the problematic status of post-mortem evidence in early 18th-century medicine. Part III The Lost and the Saved: Sudden Death as an Ethical and Religious Issue: Death and the doctors: scientific queries and ethical dilemmas; In the hour of death; Looking for a heavenly protector: Saint Andrew Avellino, the ‘apoplectic saint’. Epilogue: was there ever a sudden death ‘epidemic’ in Rome?; Index.

Praise for the Italian edition: '... beautifully written and impeccably structured, with clearly stated research questions and a helpful bibliography of key works, this in-depth study is an intellectual delight.' Alexandra Bamji, Bulletin of the History of Medicine '...an excellent work that combines medical, social, and political history to examine the meaning of illness in early modern culture.' Anita Guerrini, The American Historical Review

Maria Pia Donato is an associate professor of Early Modern History at the University of Cagliari, Italy, and chargé de recherche at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut d’Histoire moderne et contemporaine of Paris, France. She is the author of Accademie romane. Una storia sociale, 1671-1824 (Naples 2000) and numerous essays on the political, social and cultural life of modern Rome, the history of medicine, and the history of science.

• Introduction. Part I Sudden Death and the Physician’s Role in Society: Fears; The medico-legal enquiry on sudden death, or: the truth of the body and the public role of physicians; From the dead to the living: medicine and public health in the early 18th century. Part II Sudden Death in Medical Theory and Practice: A new stance on death: the mechanical medicine of Lancisi’s De subitaneis mortibus (1707); The pathological gaze: the problematic status of post-mortem evidence in early 18th-century medicine. Part III The Lost and the Saved: Sudden Death as an Ethical and Religious Issue: Death and the doctors: scientific queries and ethical dilemmas; In the hour of death; Looking for a heavenly protector: Saint Andrew Avellino, the ‘apoplectic saint’. Epilogue: was there ever a sudden death ‘epidemic’ in Rome?; Index.

Praise for the Italian edition: '... beautifully written and impeccably structured, with clearly stated research questions and a helpful bibliography of key works, this in-depth study is an intellectual delight.' Alexandra Bamji, Bulletin of the History of Medicine '...an excellent work that combines medical, social, and political history to examine the meaning of illness in early modern culture.' Anita Guerrini, The American Historical Review

Maria Pia Donato is an associate professor of Early Modern History at the University of Cagliari, Italy, and chargé de recherche at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut d’Histoire moderne et contemporaine of Paris, France. She is the author of Accademie romane. Una storia sociale, 1671-1824 (Naples 2000) and numerous essays on the political, social and cultural life of modern Rome, the history of medicine, and the history of science.

• Introduction. Part I Sudden Death and the Physician’s Role in Society: Fears; The medico-legal enquiry on sudden death, or: the truth of the body and the public role of physicians; From the dead to the living: medicine and public health in the early 18th century. Part II Sudden Death in Medical Theory and Practice: A new stance on death: the mechanical medicine of Lancisi’s De subitaneis mortibus (1707); The pathological gaze: the problematic status of post-mortem evidence in early 18th-century medicine. Part III The Lost and the Saved: Sudden Death as an Ethical and Religious Issue: Death and the doctors: scientific queries and ethical dilemmas; In the hour of death; Looking for a heavenly protector: Saint Andrew Avellino, the ‘apoplectic saint’. Epilogue: was there ever a sudden death ‘epidemic’ in Rome?; Index.

Praise for the Italian edition: '... beautifully written and impeccably structured, with clearly stated research questions and a helpful bibliography of key works, this in-depth study is an intellectual delight.' Alexandra Bamji, Bulletin of the History of Medicine '...an excellent work that combines medical, social, and political history to examine the meaning of illness in early modern culture.' Anita Guerrini, The American Historical Review