Pope Alexander VI issued a Pontifical decree Cogitantes Humanæ Conditionis on 11 June 1499 which gave to the Confraternity of the Osti and Barcaroli (innkeepers and boatmen), based at Ripetta, the small old church of San Martino de Pila and permission to build a hospital on a plot of land close to the Mausoleum of Augustus.

[3] In 1811, Giuseppe del Medico, professor of surgery and lecturer at the Accademia di San Luca published Anatomia per uso dei pittori e scultori.

Pope Pius IX, in a rescript dated 19 September 1859, approved a special formula for the blessing of the cord of Saint Joseph.

[6] The brief Universi Dominici gregis of 23 September 1862, raised the Confraternity of the Cord of Saint Joseph was to an archconfraternity.

[7] The cord is white, in token of St. Joseph's purity of heart, and has seven knots, denoting his seven joys and sorrows.

Confraternities of the Cord of Saint Joseph must be aggregated to the archconfraternity in the Church of St. Roch at Rome in order to enjoy its spiritual favours and indulgences.

A new, Palladio-influenced façade by Giuseppe Valadier was built in 1834, inspired by Andrea Palladio's work on Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice.

There are three chapels on each side: Giacinto Brandi painted San Rocco intercede per i malati di peste (1673).