RESUMO
Giovanni Boccaccio's fatal disease(s) and cause of death have long remained a mystery. Now, for the first time, a thorough multidisciplinary reassessment has finally been carried out. By combining philological and clinical approaches, it is at last possible to suggest a solid retrospective diagnosis based upon a study of his correspondence, poetry and iconography, as well as references to his physical decay in coeval and later sources. It would appear that he suffered over the last three years of his life from hepatic and cardiac failure, conditions that resulted in edema and potentially even hepatic carcinoma. Focusing on an unusually well-documented case from the Middle Ages, this analysis of exceptionally high informative value reconstructs the symptoms of his medical conditions and finally permits us to clarify and explain the historical feaures, presentations and evolutionary history of the case at hand.
Assuntos
Insuficiência Cardíaca/história , Falência Hepática/história , Autoria/história , Pessoas Famosas , Insuficiência Cardíaca/diagnóstico , História Medieval , Humanos , Itália , Falência Hepática/diagnóstico , Masculino , Pinturas/históriaRESUMO
Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron contains a novella that details the sudden death of a young man called Gabriotto, including a portrayal of the discomfort that the protagonist experienced and a rudimentary autopsy performed by local physicians. The intriguing description of symptoms and pathologies has made it possible to read a 7-century-old case through the modern clinical lens. Thanks to the medical and philological analysis of the text-despite the vast difference between modern and medieval medicine-2 hypothetical diagnoses have emerged: either an aortic dissection or an atrial myxoma.
