At the end of the 15th century, chroniclers and physicians reported the rapid spread of a new sexually transmitted disease. This is one of the first known epidemics of syphilis which coincides with the era of the great explorations. This gave rise to the theory that Europeans contracted the disease in America and then brought it back to Europe.
In a text published in The Scientistthe historian Marylynn Salmon du Smith College in Massachusetts explains how art and manuscripts from the Old Continent rather suggest that syphilis was already present in Europe in medieval times.
The historian compared modern photographs of people suffering from syphilis to medieval works of art. Thus, in some works of the 13th century, artists staged figures with a deformed nose to represent depraved beings, such as those who tormented Christ. This type of deformity is a known symptom of syphilis since the bacteria attacks the bones of the face in particular, underlines the historian.
Manuscripts from the time also helped her identify historical figures who may have suffered from syphilis. This is probably the case of King Edward IV of England, who died in 1483.
A chronicler of the time mentions that he would have died of an unknown and difficult to treat disease even in people with low status, the common people and the aristocracy not being affected in the same way. According to the historian, the only disease corresponding to this description would be syphilis since the bacterium responsible for it, Treponema pallidum, causes different disorders depending on the mode of transmission. For example, when transmitted by direct contact with lesions, it causes bejeel and the soon, especially among children from rural backgrounds. This form is less often fatal. When transmitted sexually, it causes syphilis, which would have affected the elite more at the time.
Moreover, still according to the chronicler, the king would have contracted this disease while going fishing, an expression which meant to have sexual relations in the Middle Ages. The sovereign indeed had the reputation of having several partners, which would be consistent with this diagnosis.
Finally, Perkin Warbeck, a rebel in the reign of Henry VII a few years later, claimed to be the youngest son of Edward IV. According to descriptions of the time, the young man had a cloudy eye. This peculiarity might be the result of a interstitial keratitisan inflammation of the eye corresponding to a late complication of congenital syphilis, suggests Marylynn Salmon.
Bones and DNA to the rescue
In recent decades, numerous studies have been carried out on skeletons dating from the Middle Ages in search of traces of syphilis. Some specimens with lesions typical of the disease have thus been identified. According to one team of experts who analyzed the research on this subject in 2019, these discoveries would invalidate the hypothesis that syphilis arrived in Europe following the great explorations.
Additionally, in 2020, European researchers reconstructed the genome of four strains of T. pallidum recovered from human remains from northern Europe. Their analyzes led to the conclusion that the pathogen was present in Europe before the voyages of Christopher Columbus.
