[THE THIRD PLAGUE PANDEMIC (1855-1945) / “PESTE BUBBONICA” IN EGYPT / ITALIAN TRADE SHIPS] An official broadside dated 1904, issued by the Italian Ministry of the Interior, stating that a plague outbreak in the city of Alexandria, Egypt...

GIOLITTI, GIOVANNI (1842-1928).

Tip. Delle Mantellate, Roma, 1904.

Complete title: [THE THIRD PLAGUE PANDEMIC (1855-1945) / “PESTE BUBBONICA” IN EGYPT / ITALIAN TRADE SHIPS] An official broadside dated 1904, issued by the Italian Ministry of the Interior, stating that a plague outbreak in the city of Alexandria, Egypt, had been officially confirmed, and that shipments arriving from the port of Alexandria were to be regulated according to specific decrees.

Original lithograph broadside. Folio. (32 x 22 cm). In Italian. Printed on one side only. Occasional vertical and horizontal fold traces, creased. A very good paper.

A rare and unrecorded official broadside in Italian, dated 1904, issued by the Italian Ministry of the Interior, stating that a plague outbreak in the city of Alexandria, Egypt, had been officially confirmed, and that shipments arriving from the port of Alexandria were to be regulated according to specific decrees.

The text: Ministero Dell'Interno 1904. Ordinanza di Sanita Marittima N. 4.

Il ministro Segretario di Stato per gli Affari dell'Interno, Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri.

Constatata ufficialmente l'esistenza della peste bubbonica in Alessandria D'Egitto; Veduta la Convenzione Sanitaria Internazionale di Venezia 19 marzo 1897; Veduta la legge 22 dicembre 1888 n. 5849 (Serie 3a);

Decreta: Le provenienze dal porto di Allessandria di Egitto sono assoggettate alle prescrizioni dell'Ordinanza di Sanita marittima n. 5 del 23 febbraio 1902. I prefetti delle provincie marittime sono incaricati della esecuzione del presente Decreto. Roma, 9 aprile 1904. Il Ministro, Giolitti.”

The Third Plague began in China’s Yunnan province in 1855 and rapidly spread across the globe, reached Mecca and Medina in the Ottoman-ruled Arabian Peninsula by 1899, as well as the Khedivate of Egypt in the same year. Its spread prompted various precautionary measures in Italian maritime trade and shipping across the Mediterranean and the Levantine ports of the period. 

Fifty-five years after Egypt had been free from plague, the disease reemerged in Alexandria in 1899, likely introduced from Bombay. Port Said, the country’s second major port, was affected in 1900, followed by Suez in 1904. Likely introduced from Bombay, the plague was first confirmed in Alexandria, then spread to major ports such as Port Said (1900) and Suez (1904). It subsequently moved inland, affecting towns and villages along the Nile Valley as far south as Aswan. Statistics indicate that case incidence was significantly higher in Upper Egypt compared to the coastal areas and Lower Egypt.

The document’s reference to the 1897 Venice Sanitary Convention underscores the growing international coordination against epidemic threats. The Tenth International Sanitary Conference, proposed by Austria-Hungary, opened in Venice on 16 February 1897 and was the first to focus exclusively on the plague. In 1907, the Office international d'hygiène publique (OIHP) was established with a mandate to implement the various measures adopted in the Sanitary Conventions; it was later integrated into the League of Nations’ Health Organization.

It was published during the period of Giovanni Giolitti (1842-1928), the Minister of the Interior and the Prime Minister of Italy. He is the longest-serving democratically elected prime minister in Italian history, and the second-longest serving overall after Benito Mussolini. A prominent leader of the Historical Left and the Liberals, he is widely considered one of the most wealthy, powerful, and important politicians in Italian history; due to his dominant position in Italian politics, Giolitti was accused by critics of being an authoritarian leader and a parliamentary dictator. (Wikipedia).