Diagnosis e Prognosis of Gout in a Fourteenth Century Italian Manuscript

Abstract

This treaty on gout is the volgarizzamento of a Latin treaty, De Arthetica passione, which follows the method of the Concilia: analysis of symptoms, definition of the cause and diagnosis. It looks for signs of the illness that are easily recognisable, even by a non-expert, and presents pratical rules, in which the symptoms and the cause of the illness appear related. Given that gout can be caused by simple or mixed humours, the author establishes a highly instructive correlation in colour-symptom pairing in order to teach how to correctly undertake a diagnosis.