The priest Carlo Giuseppe Borbone (1755-1833) was archivist of the Ospedale Maggiore for 42 years, from 1787 to 1830. He was considered "a very skilled person in this subject" and to him we owe important interventions in the historical maps and the aspect that still today the archive has in its order.
Portrait of Carlo Borbone (1833) by Giuseppe SogniCa’ Granda – Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico
His profession is shown in the inscription below: "Priest Carlo Borbone / worthy archivist of the Hospital / died 3 July 1833".
Meritorious both for his professional seriousness and for having made his will by appointing his own universal heir Hospital (also his sister Angela Borbone widow Belluschi made a testamentary legacy in 1833).
Its reliability is also attested by having been appointed as executor of another hospital benefactor: Francesca Arena Petrolini.
Portrait of Francesca Arena Petrolini Castelfranchi (1825/1826) by Giuseppe MazzolaCa’ Granda – Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico
Portrait of Carlo Borbone (1833) by Giuseppe SogniCa’ Granda – Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico
The painter Giuseppe Sogni, appreciated as the author of portraits (as many as 11 in the hospital picture gallery between 1823 and 1854) has the funeral mask of the benefactor at his disposal and can faithfully render the good-natured physiognomy of the priest,
dressed in a tailcoat; the cylinder hair is placed on a chair.
The whole picture gives us a realistic picture of the professional at work in his office.
Beyond a door, on whose architrave is written "Archive of the Ospitale Maggiore",
a part of the double-tiered balcony shelves can be glimpsed, with a worker at work. The furnishings, still in perfect working order, were made under his direction in 1808.
a part of the double-tiered balcony shelves can be glimpsed, with a worker at work. The furnishings, still in perfect working order, were made under his direction in 1808.
The desk and the chairs are the ones still present today in the halls of the Institute. On the desk there is a folder, with bellows in green canvas and laces, on the model of those used since then until now;
on the back is the classification "Origin and endowment / Foundation".
The content is exhibited on the piano: a collection of the most important scrolls for the history of the institution.
On the walls hang portraits of other benefactors: "Pope Pius IV" (1680) by Ottavio Bizzozzero
Portrait of Pio IV (1680) by Ottavio BizzozzeroCa’ Granda – Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico
Portrait of Carlo Borbone (1833) by Giuseppe SogniCa’ Granda – Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico
and "Giacomo Sannazzari della Ripa" (1804) by Paolo Borroni, preserved in the hospital picture gallery.
Portrait of Giacomo Sannazzari della Ripa (1804) by Paolo Borroni Antoine CoypelCa’ Granda – Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico
Donatella Zanacchi
