Did you know?
- The English called it ‘The French Disease’
- The French called it ‘The Neapolitan Disease’
- The Italians called it ‘The Spanish Disease’
- The Portuguese called it ‘The Castilian Disease’
- The Turks called it ‘The Christian Disease’
About: Syphilis
Really?? I had never hears about “The Neapolitan Disease”.
Do you know where all these names originate from?
From what I remember, it was brought back from the New World (as the US was called then) by Spanish sailors (Christopher Columbus and his men) and then spread throughout Italy and the rest of Europe by King Charles (the VII I think) of France’s soldiers in the last years of the 15th Century. But from these names, each country seems like they blamed other countries for giving it to them. Both Spain and France had a claim on Naples so it probably started with Spain then Naples then France.
I think it was discovered well before Christopher Columbus as some analysis of documents prior to that period of time have showed it.
Now the exact origin of the disease seems to be really difficumt to establish as it has evolved and developed with time.
It’d be interesting to know more about its geographical and time origins but l think the research won’t go much further now.