Accounting for and of the epidemic in Bologna in 1855: The medicus-politicus in the Papal States

Abstract

This study investigates the confluence between accounting and natural disasters by examining the case of the cholera epidemic that occurred in Bologna in 1855, a city of the Papal States, where there was a strong (medical) intellectual class critical of the central government exercised by the Pope and clergy. We analysed primary and secondary sources available in Bologna in the Municipal Library of the Archiginnasio, State Archive, and Municipal Historical Archive to demonstrate how the accounting for and of the epidemic overturned the traditional power structures of the Papal States. Specifically, the medical establishment, leveraging the medical-administrative accounting technologies, replaced the clergy and local aristocracy as the governing body of the city, paving the way for the future secularisation of the administration. The study contributes to the literature by providing political implications of accounting technologies for natural disasters.