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Syphilis
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This woodcut from 1498 provides the first medical illustration of syphilis. Nicolas Squillacio, a Barcelona physician, wrote in June, 1495: "The sickness does not last more than a year, although the skin remains covered in scars which show the areas it affected." In 1530, Girolamo Fracastro, a doctor in Verona, wrote a poem whose hero, a shepherd from Hispaniola named Syphilis who angered Apollo and was given the disease as punishment, explained already the origins of the great pox:The all-seeing Sun shed Infection on Air, Earth and Streams,
From whence this Malady its birth received,
And first the offending Syphilus was grieved.
He first wore Buboes dreadfull to the sight,
First felt strange Pains and sleepless past the Night.
From him the Malady received its name."
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