1510 influenza pandemic
In 1510, an acute respiratory disease emerged in Asia before spreading through North Africa and Europe during the first chronicled, inter-regional flu pandemic generally recognized by medical historians and epidemiologists. Influenza-like illnesses had been documented in Europe since at least Charlemagne, with 1357's outbreak the first to be called influenza, but the 1510 flu pandemic is the first to be pathologically described following communication advances brought about by the printing press. Flu became more widely referred to as coqueluche and coccolucio in France and Sicily during this pandemic, variations of which became the most popular names for flu in early modern Europe. The pandemic caused significant disruption in government, church, and society with near-universal infection and a mortality rate of around 1%.
Asia
The 1510 flu is suspected of originating in East Asia, possibly China. Gregor Horst writes in Operum medicorum tombus primus that the disease came from Asia and spread along trade routes before attacking the Middle East and North Africa. German medical writer Justus Hecker suggested the 1510 influenza most likely came from Asia because of the historical nature of other influenzas to originate there in more recent pandemics.Africa
It is generally understood that the 1510 influenza had spread in Africa before Europe. Influenza was likely widespread in North Africa before crossing continents through the Mediterranean, arriving in Malta where British medical historian Thomas Short believed that the "island of Melite in Africa" became the 1510 flu's springboard into Europe.Europe
Europe's internationally traveled cities and flu's highly contagious nature enabled its spread through European populations. The 1510 flu disrupted royal courts, church services, and social life across Europe. Contemporary chroniclers and those who have read their accounts observed how entire populations were attacked at once, which is how the disease first received the name influenza. Turin professor Francisco Vallerioli writes that the 1510 flu featured "Constriction of breathing, and beginning with a hoarseness of voice and... shivering. Not long after that there being a cooked humor which fills the lungs." Physicians like Valleriola described the 1510 flu as more fatal to children and those who were bled. Lawyer Francesco Muralto noted that "the disease killed 10 people out of a thousand in one day," supporting a fatality rate of around 1%.Sicily and the Italian Kingdoms
The first cases of influenza began to appear in Sicily around July after the arrival of infected merchant ships from Malta. In Sicily it was commonly called coccolucio for the hood the sick often wore over their heads. Influenza quickly spread out along the Mediterranean coasts of Italy and southern France via merchant ships leaving the island.In Emilia-Romagna, Tommasino de' Bianchi recorded the recovery of Modena's first cases on 13 July 1510, writing that in the city "there appears an illness that lasts three days with a great fever, and headache and then they rise... but there remains a terrible cough that lasts maybe eight days, and then they recover." This data would indicate that the first cases of flu, which has an incubation period of one to four days, began to fall ill in the Emilia-Romagna region around late June or early July. Pope Julius II attributed the outbreaks in Rome and the Holy See to God's wrath.
Central Europe
Flu spread over the Alps into Switzerland and the Holy Roman Empire. In Switzerland it is documented as being called das Gruppie by the Mellingen chronicler Anton Tegenfeld, the flu nickname then preferred by German-speaking Europeans. A respiratory illness seemed to have menaced the Canton of Aargua in June, with the population falling ill with sniffling, coughing, and fatigue. German physician Achilles Gasser recorded a deadly epidemic spreading over the Holy Roman Empire's upper kingdoms, branching into the cities and the "whole mankind:" Mira qua edam Epidemia mortales per urbes hanc totamque adeo superiorem Germaniam corripiebat, qua aegri IV vel V ad summum dies molestissimis destillationibus laborabant ac ration privati instar phrenicorum furebant, atque inde iterum convalescebant, paucissimis ad Gorcum demissis.André de Burgo's letters dated 24 August 1510 indicate Margaret of Austria had to intervene at a royal assembly between her father, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, and Louis XII of France because the King of France was too sick with "coqueluche" to be spoken to. Influenza spread out from the Holy Roman Empire towards Northern Europe, the Baltic states, and west towards France and England.
France
Arriving aboard infected sailors from Sicily, influenza struck the Kingdom of France through the ports of Marseille and Nice and spread through the international crowds of the shipyards. Merchants, pilgrims, and other travelers from the south and east spread the virus throughout the western Mediterranean in July. It was referred to as "" among French physicians, but more commonly just called coqueluche. Historian François Eudes de Mézeray traced the etymology of "coqueluche" to an outbreak 1410s during which sufferers wore hoods resembling coqueluchons, a kind of monk's cowl. French surgeon Ambroise Paré described the outbreak as having been a "rheumatic affliction of the head...with constriction of the heart and lungs." By August it had appeared in Tours and after it had propagated itself throughout France over summer, sickening the entire country by September. French poet and historian Jean Bouchet, employed by King Louis XII's Royal Court, wrote that the epidemic "appeared in the entire Kingdom of France, as much in the towns as in the countryside."Coqueluche filled up the hospitals in France. King Louis XII's National Assembly of Bishops, Prelates, and university professors scheduled for September 1510 was delayed because of the intensity of the flu in Paris. Jean Fernel, physician to Henry III of France, compares the 1557 influenza to the 1510 epidemic which attacked everyone with fever, a heaviness in their head, and profound coughing. Up to 1000 Parisians per day were dying at the height of the "1510 peste." Mézeray mentions that it disrupted judicial proceedings and colleges, and that the 1510 flu was more widespread and deadly in France than in other countries.
Cardinal Georges d'Amboise, a close friend and advisor to the King of France, is sometimes believed to have died of influenza since his health sharply declined after arriving in Lyons in May 1510. The cardinal, also known as Monseigneur le Ledat, made his final testimony and recited Sacraments around 22 May before he died on the 25th. His sudden decline in health and flu's arrival in Europe around early summer have created uncertainty as to whether he died of gout or influenza, but "coqueluche" is not mentioned in French royal correspondence that year until August.