The first recorded outbreak of syphilis in Europe occurred in 1494/1495 in Naples, Italy, during a French invasion. Because it was spread geographically by French troops returning from that campaign, the disease was known … See more

The first well-recorded European outbreak of what is now known as syphilis occurred in 1495 among French troops invading Italy. It may have been transmitted to the French via Spanish mercenaries serving Charles VIII of France in that campaign; also of note, is that … See more

In 1905, Fritz Schaudinn and Erich Hoffmann discovered Treponema pallidum in tissue of patients with syphilis. One year later, the first effective test for syphilis, the Wassermann test, was developed. Although it had some false positive results, it was a major … See more

The earliest known depiction of an individual with syphilis is Albrecht Dürer's Syphilitic Man (1496), a woodcut believed to represent a Landsknecht, a Northern European See more

The name "syphilis" was coined by the Italian physician and poet Girolamo Fracastoro in his pastoral noted poem, written in Latin, titled Syphilis sive morbus gallicus ( See more

There were originally no effective treatments for syphilis, although a number of remedies were tried. In the infant stages of this disease in … See more

An excavation of a seventeenth-century cemetery at St Thomas's Hospital in London, England found that 13 per cent of skeletons showed evidence of treponemal lesions. These … See more