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Cleansing the Soul: Filarete and the Sewers of the Ospedale Maggiore in Milan
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 March 2025
Abstract
Antonio Averlino (1400–69), called Filarete, designed the Ospedale Maggiore (or Great Hospital) in Milan with an ingenious sewer and ventilation system, which this article connects to ancient medical treatises on the human body’s exhalation of air and evacuation of waste. Critical examination of the system in relation to Hippocratic and Galenic medical theory, Filarete’s architectural thought, and the medico-spiritual function of early modern hospitals suggests that the architect conceived the building as a living and breathing corpus mysticum, whose internal organs cleansed the souls of its corrupted members.
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Footnotes
My thanks to Renzo Baldasso for kindly sharing with me his essay on the Ospedale and for encouraging me to pursue the subject further; the Villa I Tatti and the Clark Art Institute for generously supporting the project; and the editors and anonymous reviewers of Renaissance Quarterly for their helpful feedback. This article is a case study from my upcoming book, Architecture of the Soul: Buildings, Cities, and the Construction of Life in Early Modern Italy (under contract with Yale University Press). For a 3D animation of the sewer and ventilation system reconstructed in this article, see architectureofthesoul.org. All translations are my own unless otherwise noted.
References
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