Tag Archives: syphilis
The Marvelous Virtues of Precipitato
In the Renaissance, diseases frequently took on terrifying aspects. They were dangerous enemies, never to be taken lightly. Even familiar diseases such as leprosy and plague were feared adversaries that had to be combated with every means at hand. Besides such familiar sicknesses, early modern Europe was besieged by a host of new and mysterious […]
The Canker Friar
[Note: In the course of doing research, historians sometimes come across stories that seem to cry out to be told. Here’s one that I encountered in the Inquisition file in the Venetian State Archive a few years ago. It’s from Archivio di Stato, Venice, Sant’Uffizio, b. 23, containing the trial testimony of Antonio Vulpino, 9 […]
The Aquavitae Brothers
The Renaissance was an era of new diseases. Between 1347 and 1600, Western Europe was struck by a succession of new and baffling epidemics. Not only did Europe experience its most devastating demographic upheaval as a result of the rapid, epidemic spread of the Black Death (presumably bubonic plague), it was struck by a succession […]
The Renaissance Nose Job
THE RAVAGES OF WARFARE, PUBLIC VIOLENCE, AND DISFIGURING NEW DISEASES made the Renaissance an age of surgical innovation, and professor of secrets Leonardo Fioravanti was a witness to one of the most amazing innovations of all: Surgical reconstruction of the nose, known in medical terms as rhinoplasty . It’s a pretty amazing story in itself. […]
