Famous Composers – Diseases Reloaded by Andreas Otte

Author:Andreas Otte
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9783031066719
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

4.2 Paganini’s Diseases

Box 4.1 Diseases of Paganini

Measles encephalitis (overcome in childhood), tuberculosis, syphilis, priapism, suspected Marfan’s syndrome.

Life expectancy in the first quarter of the 19th century was about 45 years (however, this low mean age is also due to the high infant and child mortality rate). Although Paganini lived to be 57 years, his life has been marked by chronic suffering since his earliest childhood.

4.2.1 Syphilis and Tuberculosis

Paganini's three most important diagnoses are: the measles encephalitis in early years and in middle years until his death the tuberculous and syphilitic components of his main illness. Here famous medical historian Dieter Kerner1 (see Otte and Wink 2008) argues for the likelihood of the dominance of a syphilitic condition, since Paganini's son Achille remained healthy despite constantly staying with his father—this would have been quite unlikely in the case of tuberculosis. Moreover, according to Kerner, the "chronic throat complaint" and the extensive bone necrosis in the mandibula are indications of a syphilitic condition.

Syphilis is the name attested since the 18th century in the German area, which goes back to the title of a Latin didactic poem "Syphilidis, sive morbi gallici, libri tres, ad Petrum Bembum" written in the sixteenth century by Girolamo Fracastoro (1478–1553), in which the story of the sexually ill Sypilos, the son of Niobe (Ovid, Metamorph. VI, 231), is described. Synonymous with syphilis is the term lues (veneria); lues is from Latin and means plague, calamity. One also finds the metaphorical term "veneris" for this disease, for example, in the medical records of Robert Schumann. "Veneris" is derived from Venus, the goddess of love.

Interestingly, in various hair samples from presumably different periods of his life (once from the archives of the Milan branch of the Paganini family itself as well as, on the other hand, from a hair sample gift to "Signora Chatterton" attributed to Nicolò Paganini), evidence of heavy metal deposits was found (Fig. 4.2), suggesting mercury therapy due to a syphilitic condition (Kijewski et al. 2012; Otte and Kijewski 2016). Note that in the nineteenth-century hair given away as friendship or romantic love gifts became very popular, and so also Paganini is attributed to have made use of this fad. In 2009, a lock of hair, purportedly that of Paganini, was auctioned by Schubertiade Music & Arts, Newton, MA, USA, in a locked presentation box together with a bilingual autograph inscription in the hand of the great virtuoso saying: "Alla Signora Chatterton avec les compliments de Nicolò Paganini." The lot was purchased by violin virtuoso and international Paganini expert Joseph Gold from Piedmont, California, USA, who, among others, has kindly provided the strands of hair for further research to the author of this book (Kijewski et al. 2012; Otte and Kijewski 2016). The hair lock was presumably a gift for Eliza Davenport Latham (born November 25, 1806, died January 09, 1877), the future wife of the, at that time, best-known and most famous English harpist John Balsir Chatterton (born November 25, 1804, died April 09, 1871). Paganini

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