What were the varied accidents of matter, what the seeds which brought on an unaccustomed disease through long centuries seen by no one, which in our time raged through all Europe, parts of Asia and through the cities of Africa? It burst into Italy with the unhappy French wars and took its name from that people. Further what was the cure and what the resource experience and man's great skill in straitened circumstances discovered, and the help shown by the gods, and the gifts bestowed by heaven? These I shall now begin to sing and through the liquid air and through the stars in vast Olympus I shall search for causes far hidden: since Nature's quiet gardens with their fragrant flowers and the Muses who love wonders invite me, gripped by a sweet love of this strange event.....

       --from Syphilis by Girolamo Fracastoro, 1530.