ABSTRACT
The Lancisi and his De subitaneis mortibus of 1707 marked a significant step in conceptualising and investigating sudden death. On a closer look, however, these same sources reveal how the tragic events of 1706 induced a more acute perception of sudden death as a public health issue. It came to be of concern not only to physicians, but also to the ecclesiastical and secular governing elites, and to the population at large. Rome was not the only place where greater attention to the problem of unexpected death was given. The taming of death by medicine was initiated in the eighteenth century both in theory and in practice, in terms of medical surveillance of the population from birth to death. The Enlightenment ideal of the good death was in fact a peaceful end, awaited in full consciousness until the moment when the dying slipped into eternal sleep, without pain, assisted by the physician and loved ones.
