Research Centre on Public Health, University of Milano Bicocca, via Cadore 48, 20900, Italy.
Eur J Intern Med. 2013 Jan;24(1):1-4. doi: 10.1016/j.ejim.2012.11.002. Epub 2012 Nov 28.
The hospital is considered as one of the founding elements of modern medicine. Such an institution, originally born to be a center for housing the sick and the poor, has provided with a place to improve the medical knowledge and to educate new generations of nurses and physicians. This paper wants to remind the meaning and the development of the hospital institution in the western world.
The first part of this work analyzed the evolution of hospital, using a classical historiographical approach. In the second part, the history of the "Ospedale Maggiore" in Milan was used as a paradigm to describe the evolution of hospital from the Renaissance to nowadays through a "microhistorical approach".
The origins of the public hospital are evidenced in early Christian age, when the Christian message led people to assist the sick and the poor and to establish centers for such interventions, initially in the house of the bishop, then in monasteries and, finally, in autonomous buildings (the hospitals). These institutions were economically supported by the donations of wealthy philanthropists. Since the nineteenth century the hospitals have changed their organization and functions, but have continued to associate the charity and the care.
Christian charity and the lay culture originated from it may be rightly credited not only as the founding element of ancient hospitals, but also as the virtue which has made possible for the development of medicine, as we know it.
医院被认为是现代医学的基石之一。这种机构最初是为收容病人和穷人而设立的，为提高医学知识和培养新一代护士和医生提供了场所。本文旨在提醒人们注意西方世界医院机构的意义和发展。
本文的第一部分采用经典史学方法分析了医院的演变。第二部分，以米兰的“Ospedale Maggiore”为例，通过“微观历史方法”描述了医院从文艺复兴到现在的演变历程。
公立医院的起源可以追溯到早期基督教时代，当时基督教教义促使人们去帮助病人和穷人，并建立了干预中心，最初是在主教的房子里，然后是在修道院里，最后是在独立的建筑（医院）里。这些机构的经济支持来自富有的慈善家的捐赠。自 19 世纪以来，医院的组织和功能发生了变化，但一直将慈善和关怀联系在一起。
基督教慈善事业及其衍生的世俗文化不仅可以说是古代医院的基石，而且可以说是使我们所知道的医学得以发展的美德。
