[First attempts at smallpox engrafting (variolation) in the18th-century in Bologna]

In Bologna in the mid 18th century some brilliant doctors were among the first in Italy to carry out smallpox engrafting (variolation), obtaining interesting results. Academics and Scientific Establishment censured the activities of these experimenters, such that one of them had to continue his work in Padova, where he went to teach and continued the practice of variolation. However, Bologna's Curia pronounced a positive theological judgement on such experiments. Forty years later, in 1801, Bologna's Senate called upon Luigi Sacco to organize campaigns to vaccinate and thereby smallpox infection. Bologna had been scourged by a new epidemic that year. What happened in Bologna during the 18th century regarding scientific research reflected the demographic, economic and political situation that the city was experiencing. This trend was to come to an end only with the unification of Italy.