Giulio
Iasolino
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in
fact, unlike the case for Rome and other ancient thermal centres,
no impressive traces of thermal establishments were found on the Island
probably due to the volcanic eruptions and the earthquakes that frequently
shook the island's cliffs.
The decline of Roman power coincided with the abandonment of the use
of the balnea, even on Ischia: in fact there are no traces that show
the waters were used during the Middle Ages.
During the Renaissance period thermae and thermalism became popular
once more and a Calabrian doctor, Giulio Iasolino, who was also a
lecturer at the University of Naples, gave a decisive impulse to modern
medicine in 1500 when, fascinated with the climate and phenomena of
secondary volcanism (fumaroles and thermal waters) and sensing the
therapeutic potential of the thermae, he carried out a meticulous
census of the Island springs (the hydro-geological wealth of the island
territory appeared in print for the first time). He identified the
composition of the waters and made detailed observations of the effect
of the same on numerous pathologies that afflicted his contemporaries
(in describing the Spring of Castiglione, one of the most famous at
the time, Iasolino expressed all his enthusiasm for the thermal waters:
"Every day we see the effects and virtues of these waters, which
are so marvellous and wonderful they must surely be a gift from heaven
sent to cure men's health"). With the publication of the treatise
"De Rimedi Naturali che sono nell'Isola di Pithecusa; hoggi detta
Ischia" (Natural Remedies on the Island of Pithecusa; known today
as Ischia),
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reliefs in 'marmo lunense', (a type of marble) from the Nymph
shrine in Nitrodi (Barano) II century, A.D. Archaeological
Museum of Pithecusae. |
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