Pharmacists since 1801
Carlo REPETTI was the son of the famous historian-researcher Emanuele Repetti, who was also a pharmacist (he graduated in Rome in 1801). He was a pharmacist in Sarteano, a schoolteacher in Cetona and president or secretary of the main associations existing in the town where he lived. He was also a member of the Accademia degli Umili in Florence. Many documents of his time are kept in the historical archive of the pharmacy. Carlo Repetti died in 1875.
His daughter, Giulia (born from his marriage to Erminda Caporali), married the pharmacist, Carlo VEGNI, who took over from Carlo Repetti when he died. Giulia had two daughters from her marriage, Carlotta and Talia, who inherited the pharmacy when Carlo died in 1903. Talia married Bernardino Signorini. They had no children and she sold the pharmacy to her sister. Carlotta married Federico Bologni who did not have a degree but he had a simple license which allowed him to legally run the pharmacy for some time.
While waiting for his sons to graduate, he periodically hired pharmacists who were, in practice, nothing more than figureheads because the work was done by Federico himself. He was very clever and, in a short time, he skilfully succeeded in restoring the economic situation of the pharmacy which had been weakened by Carlo Vegni’s excessive generosity.
Mario BOLOGNI, one of Federico’s two sons, was born in 1899 and he graduated in 1922. He worked in the pharmacy until 1927. He then chose to go to Città di Castello, where he directed the Hospital Pharmacy until he bought the Giulietti Pharmacy (formerly the Magnoni Pharmacy) in Chiusi, which is still owned by the family.
His place was then taken by his brother Giulio BOLOGNI who remained in Sarteano until 1949. He then decided to go to Florence to carry out excellent work in the pharmaceutical field and he was then followed by his son Gianfranco. The latter also became a pharmacist and went on to buy the Della Nave Pharmacy in Florence, which he still owns and where he works with his pharmacist son, Gherardo.
Mario finally went back to Sarteano after a short interregnum during which the local pharmacist Giovanni Roghi acted as a figurehead and ran the business.
Carlo BOLOGNI (son of Mario and Teresa Rinaldi) was born in 1928 and graduated in 1950. He took over the running of the pharmacy on 10 January 1951. In November 1962 he bought the pharmacy from his father, Mario, and his uncle, Giulio, and he remained the owner until his death on 27 November 2017.
After Carlo’s death, his daughter, Federica, and his son, Sergio, took over the running of the pharmacy and are currently the owners.
Federica BOLOGNI (daughter of Carlo and Elena Pollastrini) was born in 1960, she graduated with honours in 1984 and has been working in the pharmacy since 1985.
Sergio BOLOGNI (son of Carlo and Elena Pollastrini) was born in 1961, he graduated in 1986 and has been working in the pharmacy since 1989.
Marialetizia BOLOGNI (daughter of Carlo and Elena Pollastrini) was born in 1964, she graduated in International Relations and currently owns the Historical Pharmacy together with her sister and brother.

According to Don Giacomo Bersotti, in the Municipal Archives of Chiusi we can find very early records of a “Franciscus Aromatarius”, who practised at the Franciscan Convent in Sarteano in 1343, and also of apothecaries.
In the nineteenth century, Sarteano had two pharmacies: the Lunghini Pharmacy (Piazza XXIV Giugno, 18), the location of the Bologni Pharmacy until 2003, and the Repetti Pharmacy, in Garibaldi Street, where for many years there was a hardware store. The store was first owned by the Bacherini family, then by the Gori family and finally by the Giusti family and it was replaced in 1989 by an antique furniture store which closed a few years ago.
Around the first half of the 1800s, the Lunghini Pharmacy went bankrupt, so Repetti’s heirs, the Vegni family, bought both the house and the pharmacy and moved their business there. They turned the marble sign round and wrote “Vegni Pharmacy” on the other side, (leaving “Lunghini Pharmacy” on the back).
According to Federico Bologni, who worked there from the end of the 1800s until the early 1960s, the shelving of the pharmacy was built in 1833 by the Chierici, a family of artisans from Sarteano. The furniture is not, as we might think, Imperial style, but is Charles X or Restoration style.
In addition to the original shelving, there was also a counter, a central round table and a ‘fratino’ table, all three of which were marble-topped. Finally, there were twelve stools, only seven of which remain today.
On 13 October 2003 the pharmacy moved to new, more spacious premises in Via del Bagno Santo to meet the new needs of the service and the old premises have become a museum of the Historical Pharmacy.
The photographs, which follow the life of the pharmacy from the early 1800s up to today, are well preserved in an album, as are the documents that precede and accompany them.


