The symptoms of Ménière’s disorder as described by Bonaventura Angeli in De Vertigine et Scotomia (1565)

Abstract

Purpose: To analyse the booklet De Vertigine et Scotomia written in 1565 by a jurist Angeli Bonavantura.

Method: We have studied and examined the various sections of the document of the XVI century.

Result: The accurate description of the symptoms complained by Angeli Bonaventura suggests that the author was probably affected by Ménière disease.

Conclusions: The analysed booklet represents the first historical description of dizziness associated with tinnitus and hearing loss.

Keywords:

• Bonaventura
• dizziness
• history
• Ménière
• vertigo

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 While, in the Hippocratic texts (cf. De capitis vulneribus 11, 43; 14, 33-34), the verbal expressions dimming of the sight and vertigo are sometimes placed in relation to one another using two distinct and specific terms, skótos (σκότος) and dînos (δῖνος), the lemmas skotódinos (σκοτόδινος) or skotodinía (σκοτοδινία) are used instead in most cases, clearly combining the two above-mentioned concepts into a single word (cf., for instance, De prisca medicina 10, 22; Aphorismi 4, 17, 1-2; Coa praesagia 157, 2; De affectionibus 2, 8-9; De morbis II 4, 25-26; 15, 5; 18, 2-3; Prorrheticon 2, 30, 30).