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Abstract: It's known that the plague of 1656-1657 caused far fewer deaths in the city of Rome than it did in Naples, Genoa and the major Sardinian cities. However, within the city itself, the epidemic struck various sectors of the population with different degrees of intensity. In particular, the Jews, whose segregation in the Ghetto had been reinforced during the pestilence, had a mortality rate almost double that of the rest of the population as demonstrated by data and documents little known until now. Girolamo Gastaldi, first head commissioner of the lazzaretti (hospitals for infectious disease) and later head commissioner of health, contributed with particular efficiency to the sanitary control of the epidemic in Rome. Evidence of this work is provided in the letters written by Gastaldi to the prefect ofthe Congregazione di sanità Mario Chigi, brother of Pope Alexander VII, during the final months of the epidemic (May-August 1657). These letters are reproduced in full in the appendix to the text.