Medici del re nella Sicilia aragonese

From the hypochondriacal James II to Martin I, the Aragonese-Sicilian monarchy in the 14th and 15th century was characterized by privileged and exclusive relationships between kings and their doctors. Protagonists in this scenario were primarily famous doctors of North and Central Italy, wise and experienced professors who were induced to move to the island, and who benefited from the scarce quantity and poor quality of local physicians. Sicilian doctors, for their part, were interested in entering the ganglia of court life and proved adept at selecting winning strategies to protect and improve positions of prestige, public visibility and privilege. In exchange for available finances, essential during periods of low liquidity, they were protected by often fragile kings, who, in order to govern, required a network of trusted men not only to take care of their health, but also able to understand complex mechanisms peculiar to the island. The rules of the game changed in 1398 with the institution, at the hands of Martin, the eldest son of Aragon, of the protomedicato, a judicial body whose job was to enforce the laws related to the practice of medicine and related activities, and which proved to be an important stepping stone for the careers of doctors in the King’s service: in contrast with previous decades, his monarchy was determined to exercise total control over Sicilian society, and was thus well-aware of the importance of methods of selecting and recruiting members of the medical profession.