The origin of light: Ruptures and stability in the history of Turin surgeons during the seventeenth and eighteenth century

The article investigated the patterns of geographical and social mobility w hich characterize the experience of this under-investigated occupational gr oup in a period in which its status was enhanced by recent achievements in military surgery and anatomy, and by the new role surgeons acquired in hosp itals, in the armies, in the service of the sovereign's household and munic ipal 'surgeons of the poor'. The depositions of 89 shopmasters recorded dur ing the visitation of 1695 provide the starting point for the analysis: the statements can be seen as a sort of self-representation of the practitione r, they include precious biographical detail on stages of his career and re veal features of his professional experience he regards as evidence of cred ibility and good reputation. The element which is systematically stressed i s the territorial identity of the shop, the duration and continuity of the practice not just in the same city but in the same neighborhood. This empha sis on stability contrasts with the origin of surgeons, at least half of wh om are foreigners who have moved to the city, in most cases, in youth. Orig ins, however, do not play a great part in the depositions and more generall y in the new life of surgeons, it is the new identity of 'surgeon in Turin' which is stressed and the roots taken in the new environment which count m ore that any original loyalty. It is argued that studies of migration have paid disproportionate attention to the persistence of original ties in the new reality and failed to recognize that severing past relationships and th e creation of new bonds are a crucial component of the migrant's experience . In the case of surgeons, it is the years of work 'with' or 'for' other su rgeons, precedent to the opening of an independent shop, which offer the gr eatest opportunities to redefine chances of social advance and professional achievement. Youth and the first steps to career are therefore portrayed a s a dynamic, often subversive, phase of individual initiative rather than a n expression of family strategies. In this respect the experience of migran ts to towns is not much different from that of young natives: biographical reconstitutions show that within town too, the 'migration' of the youth to a different neighborhood and into a new social and family network was often the precondition of the surgeons success.