Introduction - Uppsala Monitoring Centre

1497 Syphilis broke out for the first time in an epidemic fashion during the
1496 siege of Naples by Carlo VIII, King of France. Gaspare
Torella(c1452–1520), a Spanish physician to Pope Alexander VI,
wrote in November 1497 ‘Tractatus cum consiliis contra
Pudendagram, seu morbum Gallicum’ [A work with descriptions of
syphilis, or the French disease] referring to the disease as
‘pudendagra’ 49 and described five cases treated with mercurial
ointment (Waugh, 1982). He said that syphilis was known in Avignon
in 1493 and also that he relied on mercurial ointment for its
treatment, but later on he rejected it. Until Italy was a leading nation,
syphilis was called ‘French disease’, but when Italy declined, the
French appellation: ‘Neapolitan illness’ prevailed
(http://pacs.unica.it/biblio/lesson2.htm) accessed 15 th November
2009. Other synonyms: ‘Morbus gallicus’. There is some evidence
that syphilis was present in Asia Minor prior to 1412. There were nine
tracts published in Latin on syphilis between 1495 and 1498
(Sudhoff, 1925).
1497 Alessandro Benedetti (1460–1525 or?1450–1512), a professor of
anatomy and surgery at Padua, described shaking, paralysis and
loss of teeth with mercury (Quétel, 1992).
1498 The first official European Pharmacopoeia ‘Nuovo Receptario
composto dal famossisimo chollegio degli eximii doctori dell arte et
medicina della inclita cipta di Firenze: Impresso Nella inclyta Cipta di
Firenze per la Compagnia del Dragho; 1498.’ [New recipe book
composed by the most famous college of the distinguished doctors
of the art and medicine of the illustrious chapter of Florence, by the
Florentine Guild of Physicians and Pharmacists.] It acknowledges
many previous authors, e.g. Mesue, Nicholas, Avicenna and Galen.
It covers all sorts of things used as medication: metals, viscere and
flesh of animals, salts, and precious stones. The universal panacea –
Mithridato contains 109 ingredients including laudanum 50 . There is
no mention of ADRs.
Francisco Lopez de Villalobos, author of ‘Sumaria de la medicina en
romance trovado con un tractado sobre las pestiferas ‘bubas’; [‘Sur
les contageuses et maudites bubas histoire et médecine
Salamanque’]; [With an account of harmful swellings, and an account
49 Pudendagra =syphilis
50 Laudanum = tincture of opium