Syphilis Spreads Widely Across Europe

Timeline

1. 1494–1495Naples · NaplesAs Charles VIII's French army marched south into Italy, large numbers of previously unseen ulcerative skin lesions were reported in ports and military camps such as Naples. Physicians and chroniclers began recording this "new plague" and linked it to the presence of foreign troops.
2. 1495–1497Rome—Alps—Rhinelands · Central EuropeAfter 1495 the epidemic spread northward with withdrawing troops, mercenaries, and caravans via Rome, Switzerland, and the German states. Cases appeared successively in Paris, Vienna, and elsewhere, with various regions blaming each other as the "French disease" or "Spanish disease," reflecting both political hostility and medical ignorance.
3. 1496–1499Europe · EuropeBy the late 1490s syphilis had become a common disease in Western European cities. Italian physicians such as Joseph Grünpeck wrote early treatises, and various countries began trying mercury therapies and quarantine measures, laying the foundation for modern venereology and public health discussions.