Over the last fifty years scholars have intensely studied medieval and early modern charity, healthcare, and social protection in the main urban centers of Southern Europe. Even the charitable institutions and confraternities of Naples and Palermo, cities traditionally less investigated than the centers of Northern and Central Italy, have been the subject of recent in-depth studies, filling a serious historiographical gap. With all of the recent scholarship on Southern Europe, one might expect yet another study to add little to the historical dialogue, yet this book by Novi Chavarria contributes not one but at least two groundbreaking approaches and subjects.

The first original aspect lies in the choice of theme, reflected in the volume's subtitle: “Hospitals and Cultures of Nations in the Hispanic Monarchy.” The focus of the investigation is the “constellation” (17) of hospitals, convents, and confraternities of “nations” that were established in the different dominions of the Hispanic monarchy between the 1650s and the first half of the seventeenth century. These welfare spaces provided medical care, legal assistance, and economic support to members of the “Nazione” who for various reasons found themselves in unfamiliar territory. In addition, these welfare institutions were places of socialization, of consolidation of devotions and cults, of building political, diplomatic and matrimonial alliances and, above all, of promoting the integration of the different communities within the Habsburg Empire (chapter 1).

The second original contribution of this volume lies in the author's comparative methodology approach. Novi Chavarria reads and uses a great variety of written sources (charters, diaries, letters, chronicles, notarial registers, and relaciones de sucesos), produced in both institutional and informal contexts, and across a wide geopolitical scope (Brussels, Genoa, Lisbon, Madrid, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Rome). It is precisely this comparative reading of the sources (preserved in twenty European archives) that gives the author the opportunity to explore new perspectives of analysis that revolve around the concept not only of nations but also identities, borders, networks of power and relationships, diplomatic activities, circulation of information, and medical cultures. In the able hands of the author these sources speak of spaces and actors that current studies have not always seen in a dynamic dialogue: sick people and scenes of healing, sailors and refugees, nuns and clandestine travel, businessmen and diplomatic agents, medical plants and therapeutic practices, and the interweaving of languages, food, and knowledge.

In the central chapters of the book, the author shows that not only the poor but also soldiers were placed at the center of the welfare policies of the monarchy, through an initiative that, although reaching its maximum momentum and planning in the age of Philip II (1556–98), also characterized the preceding decades and would continue into the seventeenth century. The investment in healthcare and social assistance passed through the financing of those general urban hospitals that cared for Spanish soldiers (Genoa and Savona), through the foundation or reform of national hospitals (normally dedicated to San Giacomo) for Spaniards, generally the military (Alexandria, Asti, Licata, Messina, Milan, Naples, Palermo) or the Portuguese (Madrid, Rome, Valladolid) and Flemish (Madrid).

In the fifth chapter, the author focuses on the institution of the Italian Nation in Spain: the Hospital of Saint Peter of the Italians in Madrid, which also had a later similar institution in Valladolid when Philip III moved the court there (1601–06). Founded in 1579, the Italian Nation was governed by a council of ten governors and, from 1627, six members, representing Florence, Genoa, Milan, Naples, Rome, and Sicily. For bankers (who were mostly from Genoa), businessmen, nobles, bureaucrats, and clergy, the administration of St. Peter's hospital was an excellent way to develop a career in the Italian domains of the Crown, in Madrid, as well as the Roman Curia.

There is much to admire in this innovative study that examines a broad array of welfare spaces: hospitals, confraternities, monasteries, and convents. Rather than focus on one type of charitable institution, as most studies have done, Novi Chavarria looks at the many disparate histories and historiographies through one lens, and this comparative perspective reveals a common objective: the reception, care, and integration of the subjects of the Hispanic monarchy. In this sense, the book presents a groundbreaking approach to the history of charity and healthcare. In the last chapter, the author articulates these original perspectives and new areas of research, raising more questions than answers, proposing new stimulating fields of study rather than conclusions.