2020 Essays

Gout or Gonorrhea? The Riddle of G.

Basile, Nicole Parisina

Ms. Fr. 640, fol. 7v, contains a curious recipe titled “To relieve the pain of G.” This essay seeks to uncover the meaning of “G.” in this entry by comparing the recipe to three other similar entries in the manuscript: “Against gonorrhea,” also on fol. 7v, “Against Go.,” on fol. 16v, and “Against cold gouts,” on fol. 46r. Contemporary sources, including medical treatises and reference works, offer clues about the purpose of this recipe, mentioning similar ingredients and methods of preparation and application. Indeed, the medicinal properties of the recipe’s ingredients—marcasite, storax, and urine—serve specific purposes that can be associated with early modern conceptions of gout. A reconstruction of the recipe considers whether the process of distilling these ingredients was feasible.