The use of mercury against pediculosis in the Renaissance: The case of Ferdinand II of Aragon, King of Naples, 1467-96

Medical History

Volumn 55, Issue 1, 2011, Pages 109-115

  Fornaciari, Gino ^a   Marinozzi, Silvia ^b   Gazzaniga, Valentina ^b   Giuffra, Valentina ^a   Picchi, Malayka Samantha ^a   Giusiani, Mario ^a   Masetti, Massimo ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF PISA   (Italy)

^b SAPIENZA UNIVERSITY OF ROME   (Italy)

Author keywords

Ferdinand II of Aragon; Lice; Mercurial therapy; Naples; Renaissance

Indexed keywords

EID: 79951657828     PISSN: 00257273     EISSN: 09505571     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0025727300006074     Document Type: Article

References (42)

1. Gino Fornaciari, 'The Mummies of the Abbey of Saint Domenico Maggiore in Naples: A Preliminary Report', Archivio per l'Antropologia e la Etnologia, 115 (1985), 215-26.
2. Gino Fornaciari, 'The Mummies of the Abbey of Saint Domenico Maggiore in Naples: A Preliminary Survey', in Proceedings of the V European Meeting of the Paleopathology Association, Siena, September 1984 (Siena: University of Siena, 1986), 97-104.
3. Gino Fornaciari, 'Italian mummies', in Thomas Aidan Cockburn, Eve Cockburn, Theodore A. Reyman (eds), Mummies, Disease and Ancient Cultures (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 271-80.
4. Gino Fornaciari, 'Renaissance Mummies in Italy', Medicina nei Secoli, 11 (1999), 85-105.
5. Gino Fornaciari, 'Le mummie aragonesi in San Domenico Maggiore di Napoli', Medicina nei Secoli, 18 (2007), 875-96.
6. Gino Fornaciari and A. Amadei, 'Anthropologie et paléodemographie d'une classe socialement élevée de la Renaissance italienne: la série de momies de S. Domenico Maggiore a' Naples (XVe-XVIe sie'cles)', Journal of Paleopathology Monographic Publications, 1 (1989), 47-52.
7. G. Brunelli, 'Ferdinando II (Ferrandino) d'Aragona, re di Napoli', in Dizionario biografico degli italiani, Vol. 46 (Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 1996), 189-94.
8. Barbara J. Keller, Mark E. Peden and Anthony Rattonetti, 'Graphites-Furnace Atomic Absorption Method for Trace-level Determination of Total Mercury', Analytical Chemistry, 56 (1984), 2617-18.
9. W.M. Blakemore and S.M. Billedeau, 'Analysis of Laboratory Animal Feed for Toxic and Essential Elements by Atomic Absorption and Inductively Coupled Argon Plasma Emission Spectrometry', Journal of the Association of Analytical Chemists, 64 (1981), 284-90.
10. G.O. Korsrud et al., 'Trace Element Levels in Liver and Kidney from Cattle, Swine and Poultry Slaughtered in Canada', Canadian Journal of Comparative Medicine, 49 (1985), 159-63.
11. Mike W. Service, Medical entomology for Students (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
12. They are wingless and dorsoventrally flattened insects with short antennae and poorly developed eyes. The three strong pairs of legs terminate with a spine and a claw that allow anchoring to the hairs or clothing of the host. The head louse and the body louse measure about 3mm in length and are morphologically so similar to each other, that still today some authors consider them as subspecies of P. humanus, while others prefer to see them as two separate species.
13. N.P. Leo et al., 'The Head and Body Lice of Humans are Genetically Distinct (Insecta: Phthiraptera, Pediculidae): Evidence from double infestations', Heredity, 95 (2005), 34-40.
14. Habitat differentiation probably arose when man adopted the use of clothing (R. Kittler, M. Kayser and M. Stoneking, 'Molecular Evolution of Pediculus humanus and the Origin of Clothing', Current Biology, 13 (2003), 1414-17).
15. The pubic louse is about 2mm in length and is called crab louse for its big claws on the second and third pairs of legs and compacted thorax and abdomen.
16. C.J. Ko and D.M. Elston, 'Pediculosis', Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 50, 1 (2004), 1-12.
17. E. Orion et al., 'Itch and Scratch: Scabies and Pediculosis', Clinical Dermatology, 24 (2006), 168-75.
18. See bibliography in Kosta Y. Mumcuoglu, 'Human Lice: Pediculus and Pthirus' in Didier Raoul, Paleomicrobiology: Past Human Infections (New York: Springer, 2008), 215-22.
19. Cf. Aristotle, De historia animalium, lib. I, 5, 489a.
20. Galen, De compositione medicamentorum, lib. I, cap. VII.
21. Oeuvres d'Oribase; texte grec... traduit... par le docteurs Bussemaker et Daremberg, Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, 1851-1876, V, lib. 4, 703-4.
22. 6, lib. IV, ch. IX, 535-6.
23. Rose oil: Abu Bakr Mohammad Ibn Zakariya al-Razi, Continens Rasis (Venice: Otaviano Scoto, 1529), lib. XXV, cap.17, 521-2.
24. Avicenna, Avicennae arabum medico rum principis, ex Gerardo Cremonensis versione... (Venice: Apud Iuntas, 1608), tomus I, lib. II, tract. 2, 267, cf. tomus II, lib. IV, cap. 27, p. 256.
25. liquid pitch, Trotula, De ornatu mulierum, in Salvatore de Renzi, Collectio Salernitana (Naples: Tipografia del Filiatre-Sebezio, 1856), tome IV, lib. 2, 30-1.
26. egg white, Henry de Mondeville, Chirurgie de Maitre Henry de Mondeville composée de 1306 a' 1320 (Paris: Ancienne Libraire Germer Baillie're et F Alcen Editeur, 1893), Traite III, ch. XIV, 596-7, cf. also Traite III, ch. XX, 634-6.
27. wormwood, Arnaldo da Villanova, Arnaldi de Villanova medici acutissimi opera nuperrime revisa... (Lyons: apud Scipione de Gabiano, 1532), De semplicibus, cap. 48, fo.237v., cf. also, 268r.
28. orpiment, Pietro d'Argellata, Cirurgia Magistri Petri de Largelata, (Venice, 1499), 87-8.
29. Also Ambroise Paré, Les oeuvres d'Ambroise Paré (Paris: Gabriel Buon, 1585), VII.CL.
30. Pyrethrum, Giovanni Marinello, Gli ornamenti delle donne (Venice: Giovanni Valgrisio, 1574), 90.
31. soap, Giovanni Battista da Vigo, La prattica universale in cirugia (Venice: Bertani, 1639), 187.
32. Similar remedies involving mercury are given by Johannes Serapion, Practica. Index operum in hoc volumine contentorum, practica Joannis Serapionis aliter brevarium nuncupata, liber Serapionis de simplicium medicinalium... [Lugduni, per Jacobum Myt] 1525, tract. I, cap. V., fol. IVr.
33. Bernard de Gordon, Cy commence la pratique de... Bernard de Gordon qui s'appelle fleur de lys en médecine (Lyons, 1495), lib. II, cap. VIII-IX.
34. Guy de Chauliac, La grande chirurgie de Guy de Chauliac... composée en l'an 1363 (Paris, Alcan, 1890), Traite VI, doct. I, cap. 3, 421-2.
35. Gabriele Falloppio, La chirurgia di Gabriele Falloppio Modenese (Venice: Stefano Curti, 1655), 435-6.
36. Giovanni Battista Zapata, Li maravigliosi secreti di medicina e chirurgia (Venice: Santo Lanza, 1629), 125ff.
37. G. Falloppio, Secreti diversi e miracolosi.. ., (Venice: Alessandro Gardano, 1578), 31-6, 53, 74-5, 109-10, 173-4.
38. Leonardo Fioravanti, I capricci medicinali (Venice: Comino Gallina, 1567), 155v-151.
39. Leonardo Fioravanti, Il tesoro della vita humana (Venice: Per il Spineda, 1629), 23, 28, 29-30, 36v, 43, and 283v.
40. Girolamo Ruscelli, De' secreti del reverendo donno Alessio Piemontese... (Pesaro: Bartolomeo Cesano, 1559), 4-10, 15-16, 37, 40, 120 and 121.
41. S. Marinozzi and G. Fornaciari, 'Le mummie e l'arte medica nell'evo moderno', Medicina nei Secoli, suppl. 1 (2005), 275-9, 282-5.
42. Gérard Tilles and Daniel Wallach, 'Histoire du traitement de la syphilis par le mercure: 5 sie'cles d'incertitudes et de toxicité', Revue d'Histoire de la Pharmacie (Paris), 44, 312 (1996), 347-51.