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HISTORY OF SYPHILIS: A night with Venus, a lifetime with Mercury: De Morbo Gallico
In 1025 the Persian physician Abu Ali al- Hussein, known as Avicenna (980-1037), in his book "Qanun fit-Tibb at," translated into Latin by Gerardo da Cremona as "Liber canonis medicinae," suggests the use of mercury in syphilis. Then, this therapy came in Europe and beyond for use in the form of an ointment / poultice, the mercury was widely used in fumigation. Therefore, appealed the sentence at this time "A night with Venus, a lifetime with Mercury." In Rome, towards the end of the '400, clandestines excluding, were available approximately 6800 prostitutes. In Venice the prostitutes were forced to walk with a yellow handkerchief around the neck like sign of acknowledgment. It was the sexual abstinence that the Church adopted as a remedy in order to avoid such disease and Pope Paul IV, around to the half of the '500, decreed with an edict an evicting from Rome and all the Papal State of the prostitutes.
72 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
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November 2, 2011
In Italy the disease was manifested in epidemic shape in 1494
with sieges of Naples by the French troops on the orders of Charles VIII who died to the age of 28 years, possibly from cerebral syphilis (G. Del Guerra). A group of approximately 800 prostitutes was aggregated to the French troops and not there is doubt that just the dissemination of the prostitutes in the armies and between the population contributed in maximum part to disseminate the syphilis that in our peninsula was called "mal francese" while for the French it was "mal napolitain".
In Rome, towards the end of the '400, clandestines excluding, were available approximately 6800 prostitutes. In Venice the prostitutes were forced to walk with a yellow handkerchief
around the neck like sign of acknowledgment. It was the sexual abstinence that the Church adopted as a remedy in order to avoid
such disease and Pope Paul IV, around to the half of the '500,
decreed with an edict an evicting from Rome and all the Papal State of the prostitutes.
The popular rebellion forced the Church to find a center to pratice prostitution across Tevere: today Trastevere. In the " De preservatione a carie gallica" of 1555, Gabriele Falloppia devised one individual protection against syphilis consisting in one patch of linen to shape of bag "ad mensuram glandis" soaked with mercury: it was the forerunner of the modern condom.
with sieges of Naples by the French troops on the orders of Charles VIII who died to the age of 28 years, possibly from cerebral syphilis (G. Del Guerra). A group of approximately 800 prostitutes was aggregated to the French troops and not there is doubt that just the dissemination of the prostitutes in the armies and between the population contributed in maximum part to disseminate the syphilis that in our peninsula was called "mal francese" while for the French it was "mal napolitain".
In Rome, towards the end of the '400, clandestines excluding, were available approximately 6800 prostitutes. In Venice the prostitutes were forced to walk with a yellow handkerchief
around the neck like sign of acknowledgment. It was the sexual abstinence that the Church adopted as a remedy in order to avoid
such disease and Pope Paul IV, around to the half of the '500,
decreed with an edict an evicting from Rome and all the Papal State of the prostitutes.
The popular rebellion forced the Church to find a center to pratice prostitution across Tevere: today Trastevere. In the " De preservatione a carie gallica" of 1555, Gabriele Falloppia devised one individual protection against syphilis consisting in one patch of linen to shape of bag "ad mensuram glandis" soaked with mercury: it was the forerunner of the modern condom.
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