Clelia Lollini (May 1, 1890 – November 24, 1963) was an Italian medical doctor. She helped to found the Medical Women's International Federation and the Italian Women's Medical Association.

Clelia Lollini, from a 1919 publication.

Early life

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Clelia Lollini was born in Rome, the daughter of Vittorio Lollini and Elisa Agnini. Her father was a lawyer and her mother was a journalist and feminist. All four of the Lollini daughters (Olga, Clara, Livia, and Clelia) pursued higher education and professional careers. Clelia Lollini finished her medical degree in 1915.[1]

Career

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During World War I she enlisted and worked as a surgeon[2] at a military hospital in Venice.[3] In 1919 she attended the YWCA's International Conference of Women Physicians in New York,[4][5] where she gave a lecture on "Prostitution and Prophylaxis of Venereal Disease in Italy",[6] and described her efforts to add social hygiene to Italian public school curricula.[7] She also opened a prenatal clinic for unmarried women in Rome.[8]

She became one of the founders of the Medical Women's International Federation. She and Myra Carcupino-Ferrari founded the Italian Women's Medical Association (AIDM) soon after.[1] Her own experience of tuberculosis, including a two-year stay in a sanatorium, led to her focus on the care of tubercular patients. From 1930 to 1938 she was in charge of the Anti-Tubercular Consortium of Massa. She moved to Tripoli in 1938 and continued her work on tuberculosis there.[1]

Personal life and legacy

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Clelia Lollini spoke Italian, French, German, English, and Arabic. She died in 1963, aged 73 years, in Tripoli, after an eye surgery.[1]

Silvia Mori wrote a novel, Polveri di Luna (2014), based on Lollini's time at the anti-tubercular consortium in Massa.[9]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Silvia Mori, "Clelia Lollini" Enciclopedia delle Donne.
  2. ^ Mabel Potter Daggett, Women Wanted: The Story Written in Blood Red Letters on the Horizon of the Great World War (George H. Doran Company 1918): 74.
  3. ^ "Dottoresse al fronte? Ecco le donne medico nella Grande Guerra" Estense.com (November 15, 2016).
  4. ^ "The International Conference of Women Physicians" Medical Record (September 27, 1919): 551-552.
  5. ^ "Italy and Holland to be Represented at Physicians' Conference" War Work Bulletin (August 29, 1919): 4.
  6. ^ Clelia Lollini, "Prostitution and Prophylaxis of Venereal Disease in Italy" Proceedings of the International Conference of Women Physicians (Woman's Press 1920): 62-66.
  7. ^ "International Conference of Women Doctors" The Woman Citizen (September 20, 1919): 393.
  8. ^ Elizabeth O. Toombs, "In the Hands of Women" Good Housekeeping (November 1919): 40.
  9. ^ "Le "Polveri di Luna" di Silvia Mori per il ritorno di 'Scrittorincarrara'" Archived 2017-11-07 at the Wayback Machine La Gazzetta di Massa e Carrara (January 15, 2015).