Pietro Loreta’s Home

On the external wall of this building in Via Santo Stefano, 20 – overlooking Piazza delle Sette Chiese (aka Piazza Santo Stefano), which is, according to its citizens, the most beautiful and picturesque square of Bologna – a marble memorial tablet marks the house were Pietro Loreta lived and died. The building dates back to the 15th century.¹

Nowadays, this is probably a little-known name, however, Loreta contributed to the discovery and the development of numerous surgical techniques, not to mention his extraordinary devotion for his adopted city, Bologna, and his civil commitment as a medical officer in Garibaldi’s third indipendence war.²

Pietro Loreta’s memorial tablet

The Italian inscription reads as follows: “PIETRO LORETA / PATRIZIO RAVENNATE/ SOLDATO PER LA PATRIA / E MEDICO GARIBALDINO/ CHIRURGO E CLINICO ONDE BOLOGNA/ E L’UNIVERSITA’ SI ONORARONO / ABITO’ E MORI’ IN QUESTA CASA / OVE DEVOTI AMICI E DISCEPOLI / NEL CENTENARIO DELLA SUA NASCITA / VOGLIONO SEGNATO / L’INCLITO NOME / A. 1931 – X DELL’ E. F./ G. ALBINI“.

• Photos and main text by Giuseppe Sasdelli and Simone Stefanini (December 2015)

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Bibliography

• Aldini N.N., Fini M., Giardino R., “Pietro Loreta and His Contribution to Surgery in the 19th Century”, The American surgeon, 2011 Mar;77(3):290-6.
• Stefano Arieti, “Pietro Loreta”, Treccani, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Vol. 66, 2006.