'Bit će čudo sv. Vlaha ako se na ovomu svrši!' Svjedočanstva dr. Ivana Augusta Kaznačića, Mata Zamagne Tamarića i Stijepa Skurle o koleri 1867. u Dubrovniku i okolici

Based on personal correspondence of the hospital director Dr. Ivan August Kaznačić (1817-1883) and the diary of historian Mato Zamagna Tamarić (1800-1870) from the manuscript legacies kept at the State Archives in Dubrovnik, as well as the printed accounts of canon Stijepo Skurla (1832-1877), this paper examines a cholera epidemic (cholera asiatica) from the aspect of medical history, cultural anthropology and ethnography. In order to form a clearer picture of the spread of the disease also analysed are the data from parish registers, according to which 9 persons died in Dubrovnik and 159 in its surroundings from May to September 1867. Highest death rate has been recorded among the population of the borderland villages, who in poor living and hygiene conditions communicated and traded daily with the potentially infected persons. Although anticontagion measures were not strictly implemented as contrasted to the time of the Dubrovnik Republic, by balancing between counterepidemic regulations and trade interests (measures including sanitary guards, isolation, distance keeping, disinfection of goods, disinfection of houses infected by cholera, segregation, organisation of hospitals, burial on the day of death, etc.), the Health Board managed to suppress the epidemic. The knowledge that death could occur in a couple of hours from the first symptoms gave rise to panic and fear, which tried to be soothed by prayers and processions introduced to implore the divine help. Manifestations of gratitude in the various religious practices of public piety and production of votive offerings to St. Blaise in the City and the surrounds accompanied the cessation of this epidemic, too.
Na temelju podataka iz osobnih pisama dr. Ivana Augusta Kaznačića (1817.-1883.) i dnevnika povjesničara Mata Zamagne Tamarića (1800.-1870.) iz rukopisnih ostavština u Državnom arhivu u Dubrovniku, tiskanih kazivanja kanonika Stijepa Skurle (1832.-1877.) i matičnih knjiga za 1867. godinu, propituju se okolnosti naleta kolere od koje je od svibnja do rujna umrlo 159 stanovnika u okolici i devet u Dubrovniku. Promatraju se protuepidemijske mjere u suzbijanju bolesti, uz osvrt na tipizirane obrasce javnih pobožnosti i zavjetnih darova koji su u duhu tradicije i kulture življenja pratili završetak epidemije.