Pandemics and socio-economic status : evidence from the plague of 1630 in Northern Italy

This article, by making use of the exceptional documentation available for the city of Carmagnola in north-western Italy during the 1630 plague and particularly the detailed records of the plague ward (the lazzaretto) where those infected or under suspicion of being infected were interned, sets out to answer two questions that have long remained without an answer: how did individual chances of survival depend upon socioeconomic status? And what was the impact on survival of medical treatment and hospitalization, whose specific dynamics – as we demonstrate – were themselves influenced by socio-economic status?