Plague passport from 1633 Pistoia. Unrecorded.

[Health or Epidemic Passport]. Gratis. A dì [18] di [Giugno] 1633. Noi Deputati della Sanità di Pistoia facciamo fede, come parte di questa Città dove per la gratia di Dio non è infettione ò sospettione alcuna di Peste. Anni. Statura. Pelo. S.l. [Pistoia]: s.n., s.a. [1633]. [13.9 x 11.6 cm], [1] f. letterpress text, with official stamp in typographical frame, completed in manuscript and with additional annotations on verso.

Unrecorded 1633 ‘health’ or ‘epidemic’ passport from Pistoia. Such ephemeral documents were once ubiquitous, but examples from the 17th century or earlier rarely survive today. This example is interesting, coming as it does from the end of the Great Italian Plague of 1629-32, which killed several hundred thousand people.

This form was used to certify that travelers leaving Pistoia for neighboring regions were not carrying contagions. Blank spaces were left to add the date and details about the traveler’s age, height, and skin color. In this case, a certain Benedetto da Bartolomeo left Pistoia on 18 June 1633. Various officials thereafter annotated the document on front and back on 19, 24, 25 and 28 June to recertify Benedetto as being plague free.

This form is not located by OPAC/SBN/ICCU, OCLC, or KVK.