Bartolomeo Cunibert or Bartolomeo Kunibert (Italian: Bartolomeo Silvestro Cuniberti; Savigliano, Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia 3 December 1800 - Savigliano, Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, 3 March 1851) was a Piedmontese doctor of medicine in Serbia from 1828 to 1839. He was the personal physician of the Principality of Serbia's prince Miloš and his family. In 1827 with his father-in-law Vito Romita, Cunibert opened a pharmacy, and Prince Miloš in 1832 appointed him the first doctor of the district and the city of Belgrade. At the end of Miloš's first reign, he served the prince as a translator and trusted envoy British to the consul in Belgrade George Lloyd Hodges.
After the abdication of Prince Miloš in 1839, Cunibert left Principality of Serbia and returned to Savigliano, his birthplace where he devoted himself to writing the history of the Serbian Revolution and the rule of Prince Miloš Obrenović. Until the end of his life, he wrote and edited his work "Historical Review of the Uprisings and Independence of Serbia 1804-1850" in French, which was posthumously completed and published by his brothers Felice and Michelangelo. Cunibert's history was translated into Serbian by Milenko Vesnić under the title "Serbian Uprising and the First Rule of Miloš Obrenović 1804-1850" in 1901. The work was reissued in two volumes in 1988 by the publishing company Prosveta with a preface by Dušan T. Bataković.
According to Cunibert, cultural monument of great importance Doctor's Tower in Belgrade is sometimes called Cunibert's Tower.
Arrival in Belgrade
Bartolomeo Cunibert was born on 3 December 1800 in Savigliano in the Kingdom of Piedmont. He was educated in his hometown and then attended Medical studies in Turin, specializing in Surgery. After graduating, he acquired the legal right to teach medical sciences himself. During his studies, he most likely joined Carbonari, a secret association that advocated Italian unification. He was under pressure from the police authorities in 1824. He left the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia and went to Constantinople, the capital Ottoman Empire. There he met Kapujićehaja of the Belgrade pashalik who received him in the service and sent him to Belgrade where Cunibert arrived in the summer of 1824.
In the service of Prince Miloš
As a physician of the Belgrade Abdurrahman Nurettin Pasha (1821-1826) Cunibert worked for a salary of a thousand groschen a month and was also entitled to an apartment, a carriage, three horses, two servants and food for themselves and their families. In Belgrade, he found Neapolitan Vito Romita, a doctor and a refugee Carbonari, who invariably served as the doctor of the Belgrade vizier and the Serbian prince Miloš. In 1823 the prince also entrusted Romita the upbringing of his daughter Savka Obrenović. Cunibert himself married Romita's daughter Antoinette in 1826. In 1827 Romita and Cunibert opened their first pharmacy in Belgrade but soon broke up. Romita went to the neighbouring Principality of Wallachia where he continued his medical and pharmacy practice, but not before he bequeathed Cunibert the Doctor's Tower with vineyard.
Before Cunibert's arrival in Belgrade, only two graduate doctors worked there at the time, Vito Romita and Jovan Stejić. Cunibert immediately drew attention to himself with his work and Prince Miloš invited him to treat members of his family. Miloš was satisfied with how Cunibert took care of the health of his sons Milan and Mihailo, mistress Jelenka and of an illegitimate son Gabriel. Miloš would richly award the Piedmontese physician. In 1828 Cunibert is transferred to the prince's service at a salary of 500 thalers a year.