Abstract
In 1530, Girolamo Fracastoro, an illustrious Italian physician and poet, published a book about a disease that was then known as the “French disease”, which he named syphilis. Fracastoro’s book, Syphilis sive morbus Gallicus, was written as a poem in hexameters verses, using figures from Greek mythology that provided facts about the Spanish discovery of the New World in 1492. A thorough literature review of the historical facts and mythological figures mentioned in Fracastoro’s book enabled us to complete an in-depth analysis of the poem and understand some its smallest details. Hence, we propose a new hypothesis that the origin of the term Syphilis is based on the name Sypilus as well as the appearance of people who suffer from the disease.
Highlights
In 1530, Girolamo Fracastoro published one of his masterpieces, Syphilis sive morbus Gallicus (Syphilis or the French disease)
Following the publication of Syphilis sive morbus Gallicus, Fracastoro published Homocentrica, which was about the movement of the stars (1538), De sympathia et antipathia rerum liber unus, which was a book on sympathy and antipathy of things, and De contagione et contagiosis morbis libri III (1546), which was about infection, the transmission of diseases and their cures
Understanding the facts presented in the poem made it possible to deduce how Fracastoro created a name for the disease in order for it to be identified
Summary
In 1530, Girolamo Fracastoro published one of his masterpieces, Syphilis sive morbus Gallicus (Syphilis or the French disease). Written in three books as a poem and in the text used 1300 hexameter verses to describe the details of the disease known as the “French disease.”. Fracastoro told the story of a shepherd named Syphilus, who was the first person to have the disease that he would name syphilis (Fracastorii, 1530). In light of the knowledge of historical facts and an analysis of the mythological stories mentioned by Fracastoro, a more detailed reading of the poem allowed us to formulate a new hypothesis concerning the origin of the disease’s name, Syphilis
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