« Dicitur lupus, quia in die comedit unam gallinam »: Beyond the Metaphor: Lupus Disease between the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period

Abstract

In the Middle Ages, a severe ulcerative lesion of the lower limbs consuming a sick person’s flesh was named lupus because it was metaphorically associated with the wolf, probably with respect to the feared anthropophagic characteristic of this beast. Thirteenth-century theologians’ commentaries on the Bible linked lupus with morbus regius, a polysemic term that could denote jaundice, scrophula or leprosy. Moreover, for reasons of lexical proximity, lupus was at times confused with lupia, a subcutaneous swelling. The aim of this article is to present an inquiry of the earliest appearance of lupus as nosographic name and its exact meaning(s) and possible synonyms found in different sources, as well as a study on the competition among these different diseases names. The investigation will serve as a significant heuristic example for the purpose of demonstrating the overall complexity of the nosologic lexicon of the past.