THE INSTITUTE FOR THE HISTORY OF RHEUMATOLOGY, AN OFFSPRING OF THE ITALIAN SOCIETY OF RHEUMATOLOGY, IS BORN IN VENICE

摘要

Rheumatic diseases (RD), in particulargout and spondyloarthritis (SPA), areknown to mankind from the remote past,and probably affected our progenitors (1).Although it is difficult to define the reasons for their early appearance, a possibleexplanation is the association of gout andSPA with innate immunity (2), our mostancestral defense system. Autoimmunediseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, ofwhich the onset was possibly of later date,were described anecdotally before theXVIII Century (3). Proof of the antiquityof RD is found in figurative art, literature,and paleopathology (4). There is a wealthof data sources in this field because RD, inparticular gout, affected in the past manyfamous patients, treated by eminent physicians who left behind detailed informationon their clinical features and therapy (5).These documents are largely unexploredto date;what is more, old commentariesshould be revaluated in light of contemporary medical knowledge. A patient wasPiero de’ Medici, also known as “Pierothe gouty”, because of his severe disease.In contrast to this age-old diagnosis, recent paleopathology studies investigatinggenetics, revealed that he was affected bySPA, most probably psoriatic arthritis (6).Several Italian rheumatologists, includingCamillo Benso Ballabio, Ugo Carcassi,Claudio Cervini and Gianpiero Pasero, wereinvolved in studies on old records of RD.However, difficulties in the conservationof books and documents, especially in thehands of private concerns, have made their availability erratic to the point of hampering their scientific interpretation.The Italian Society for Rheumatology (Società Italiana di Reumatologia, SIR) hasconfirmed its interest in this field by establishing the Institute for the History ofRheumatology (Istituto per la Storia della Reumatologia, ISR), to the best of ourknowledge the sole dealing with a medicalspecialty, which has been located in theprestigious building of the Scuola Grandedi San Marco in Venice.