Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Machiavelli and urinalysis

2007; Elsevier BV; Volume: 72; Issue: 7 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/sj.ki.5002496

1523-1755

Maurizio Gallieni,

Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices

To the Editor: I read with great interest the article on the history of urinalysis in Western culture by Armstrong.1.Armstrong J.A. Urinalysis in Western culture: a brief history.Kidney Int. 2007; 71: 384-387Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (61) Google Scholar It gives a detailed outline of how uroscopy developed into a prominent medical diagnostic tool, and later was abandoned due to the poor scientific basis of such practice. In Dr Amrstrong's article, however, it is not mentioned that uroscopy was so popular to be included in the most famous play by Niccolò Machiavelli, ‘La Mandragola (The Mandrake)’,2.Machiavelli N. La Mandragola (written between 1513 and 1520). First published in Rome, 1524. Here we refer to the edition cured by Gerolamo Lazzeri, Milano.Corbaccio. 1924Google Scholar,3.Machiavelli N. Mandragola. Waveland Press, Inc., Prospect Heights, IL1981Google Scholar making fun of presumptuous physicians and credulous patients. In another important paper on uroscopy by Voswinckel,4.Voswinckel P. From uroscopy to urinalysis.Clin Chim Acta. 2000; 297: 5-16Crossref PubMed Scopus (18) Google Scholar the contribution of Machiavelli is not mentioned as well. Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (May 3, 1469 to June 21, 1527) was an Italian political philosopher. He is a central figure of the political component of the Italian Renaissance, most widely known for his treatises on realist political theory (The Prince). However, he also was a musician, poet, and romantic comedic playwright. The Mandragola has been widely performed and very popular since the sixteenth century. The title comes from the popular tale that a woman who drinks a potion made from the mandrake root is certain to conceive a child, the only drawback being that the man with whom she first has sex after taking the potion will die within 8 days. The story evolves around Callimaco, a lovesick Florentine who came form Paris to conquer the heart (and the graces) of Lucrezia, the beautiful young wife of Messer Nicia Calfucci, a foolish wealthy merchant whose only thought is having an heir. The clever Callimaco therefore disguises himself as a physician, and to gain Nicia's faith, he performs an hilarious uroscopic exam (Act II, Scene 6), reported in Table 1.Table 1Transcript of the play ‘La Mandragola’, relevant to uroscopy, from the original Scene 6, Act II, in Italian and Latin, followed by English translationCALLIMACO Avete voi el segno?NICIA E' l'ha Siro, sotto.CALLIMACO Dàllo qua. Oh! questo segno mostra debilità di rene.NICIA Ei mi par torbiccio; eppur l'ha fatto or ora.CALLIMACO Non ve ne maravigliate. Nam mulieris urinae sunt semper maioris grossitiei et albedinis, et minoris pulchritudinis, quam virorum. Huius autem, inter caetera, causa est amplitudo canalium, mixtio eorum quae ex matrice exeunt cum urina.NICIA Oh! uh! potta di san Puccio! Costui mi raffinisce in tralle mani; guarda come ragiona bene di queste cose!CALLIMACO Io ho paura che costei non sia, la notte, mal coperta, e per questo fa l'orina cruda.NICIA Ella tien pure addosso un buon coltrone; ma la sta quattro ore ginocchioni ad infilzar paternostri, innanzi che la se ne venghi al letto, ed è una bestia a patir freddo.CALLIMACO Infine, dottore, o voi avete fede in me, o no; o io vi ho ad insegnare un rimedio certo, o no. Io, per me, el rimedio vi darò. Se voi avrete fede in me, voi lo piglierete; e se, oggi ad uno anno, la vostra donna non ha un suo figliolo in braccio, io voglio avervi a donare duemila ducati.NICIA Dite pure, ché io son per farvi onore di tutto, e per credervi piú che al mio confessoro.CALLIMACO Have you got the specimen?NICIA Siro's got it, under his mantle.CALLIMACO Give it to me. Oh! This specimen shows a weakness of the kidneys.NICIA Indeed, it looks quite cloudy to me; and yet she just did it.CALLIMACO You should not be surprised. Nam mulieris urinae sunt semper maioris grossitiei et albedinis, et minoris pulchritudinis, quam virorum. Huius autem, inter caetera, causa est amplitudo canalium, mixtio eorum quae ex matrice exeunt cum urina. (In fact, urine from females is always thicker and whiter, and less exquisite, than urine from males. Of such things, among others, the cause is the width of the channels, combined with the materials which exit from the body matrix with the urine).NICIA Oh! uh! Pussy of Saint Puccio! This man gets better and better while I listen to him; see how well he speaks about these things!CALLIMACO I fear the patient may not be well covered at night, and perhaps this is the reason why her urine is not well matured.NICIA She is well covered, with a good blanket, but then she'll spend four hours on her knees threading paternosters together, before she comes to bed, and yet she is as strong as an ox when it comes to standing the cold.CALLIMACO Well now, sir, the question is, have you faith in me, or haven't you; and do you want me to teach you a certain remedy or don't you? For my part, I'm ready to give you the cure. If you have faith in me, you'll get it, and if your wife doesn't have a baby in her arms by this time next year, then I'll be willing to give you two thousand ducats.NICIA Go on then, tell me, because I am ready to give you credit and honors for everything, and ready to believe you more than my own confessor. Open table in a new tab Machiavelli reports how easy could be for an educated imposter to play the part of an expert doctor, without seeing his patient. It is crucial to note the importance of Nicia's credulous attitude towards someone who could speak Latin, educated in a foreign Country, asking for an absolute faith in his previous experience. It is possible that Machiavelli took his inspiration from the first printed medical books on uroscopy, such as the Epiphanie Medicorum5.Pinder, Ulrich (Udalricus Binder)Epiphanie Medicorum. Speculum videndi urinas hominum. Clavis aperiendi portas pulsuum. Berillus discernendi causas & differentias febrium. Sodalitas Celtica, Nuremberg1506Google Scholar or the Fasciculus Medicinae.6.Ketham, John de (Johannes de Ketham, Hans von Kirchheim)Fasciculus medicinae. Venice, Giovanni & Gregorio Di Gregorii Latin Edition: 1491; Italian Edition: 1493. See alsohttp://archive.nlm.nih.gov/proj/ttp/flash/ketham/ketham.html" id="ir0010">http://archive.nlm.nih.gov/proj/ttp/flash/ketham/ketham.htmlGoogle Scholar In any case, he tried to denigrate the inappropriate use of uroscopy much earlier than Thomas Brian.7Brian T. The Pisse-Prophet, or certaine pissepot lecturesLondon, Printed by E. P. for R. Thrale, 1637. See also"http://eee.uci.edu/clients/bjbecker/PlaguesandPeople/week3h" id="ir0015">http://eee.uci.edu/clients/bjbecker/PlaguesandPeople/week3h>Google Scholar I thank Dr Roberta Zanoli from the Piccolo Teatro di Milano, for her help in retrieving bibliographic material on Machiavelli's works.