# The poet Ulrich von Hutten (1488–1523) and the French disease: the records and human remains of a probable yaws patient

## TL;DR

This paper suggests that the poet Ulrich von Hutten likely suffered from yaws, not syphilis, based on his symptoms and skeletal remains.

## Contribution

The study provides historical and anatomical evidence linking Ulrich von Hutten's illness to yaws rather than syphilis.

## Key findings

- Hutten's symptoms align with secondary and tertiary stages of yaws.
- The skeleton found on Ufnau Island shows bone changes consistent with yaws.
- This reclassification contributes to understanding the early modern epidemic.

## Abstract

Ulrich von Hutten (1488–1523), a renowned sixteenth-century German humanist, documented the symptoms of the epidemic that swept through Europe starting around 1495, commonly known as the French Disease. While it has traditionally been associated with venereal syphilis, Dutch tropical physician Willem F. R. Essed proposed in 1933, largely unnoticed to this day, that this new disease might instead be tropical yaws. This study establishes a clear link between Hutten’s reported symptoms and yaws, especially in its secondary and tertiary stages. The skeleton discovered in 1968 on Ufnau Island in Lake Zurich where Hutten died and was buried, exhibits distinct bone manifestations of ancient treponematosis with a pattern more consistent with yaws than syphilis. Furthermore, the correspondence between Hutten’s main symptoms and the lesions observable on the 1968 skeleton further confirms the identification of these human remains. The historical evidence of yaws significantly contributes to our understanding of this early modern epidemic.