A recent study suggests that Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi, known for his musical genius, may have suffered from pulmonary hypertension. The study was led by the esteemed Italian oncologist, and accomplished musician, Prof. Giuseppe Gullo, and was published in Studi Vivaldiani, the annual journal of the Istituto Italiano Antonio Vivaldi (founded in 1947), which has been part of the authoritative Italian non profit foundation, Fondazione Cini since 1978.§
In the realm of rare diseases, having a well-known figure or celebrity associated with the condition can be instrumental in raising awareness and garnering public interest. Unfortunately, in the case of pulmonary hypertension, we have struggled to identify any prominent individuals who could serve as a public face for this serious illness. The potential revelation that Italian musical genius Antonio Vivaldi, a towering figure in classical music, might have lived with pulmonary hypertension offers a unique and compelling historical testimonial. This connection to a celebrated individual from three centuries ago could significantly enhance public awareness and understanding of pulmonary hypertension, highlighting the long-standing and pervasive nature of the disease.
Prof. Gullo provides fresh insights on documented accounts of the debilitating chest pain and physical limitations that Vivaldi suffered since his birth. We contacted Dr. Gullo, who lives in New York, who says that after several years of research, he has come to the conclusion that it is highly probable that Antonio Vivaldi suffered from Eisenmenger syndrome, which includes pulmonary hypertension caused by the high volume of blood entering the pulmonary circulation from birth and typically results in the reversal of the circulatory shunt from left-to-right to right-to-left between the ages of twenty and thirty, accompanied by the appearance of characteristic symptoms.
“I speak of “high probability”, he says, “because I am aware, obviously, that we can never have certainty in diagnosis, not only because diagnostic tests cannot be conducted anymore, but also because the fundamental characteristics of this condition were not even remotely known during Vivaldi’s lifetime, and thus, the symptoms or the few clues that could be used in the diagnostic process are of little utility due to the rather primitive state of medical practice at the time”.
Nevertheless, he adds, “all the elements I have gathered (and reported and described in my study) are, in my opinion, ample enough to hypothesize and solidify this diagnosis. These same elements also allow for the equally convincing refutation of the so-called “asthmatic” hypothesis of Vivaldi’s illness, which was formulated over eighty years ago when both Vivaldi studies and modern medical science were in their infancy.”
Dr Gullo further states that, as a musicologist and avid scholar of seventeenth and eighteenth-century music (and of Vivaldi in particular, of course), the importance of this discovery is that it allows us to entirely change our perspective on Vivaldi, both as an individual and as an artist. “Just as it would be very difficult to separate Beethoven from the deafness that afflicted him for a significant part of his life, even more important in Vivaldi’s case appears to be the role that chronic illness played in his human and artistic journey. Essentially, there is not a single aspect of his life that was not strongly influenced by the illness.”
Would there even be the Vivaldi we know today without his illness? Perhaps not claims Dr. Gullo, because the significant limitations on physical activity and the uncertainty about his health conditions played a decisive role between 1705 and 1710 in his decision to dedicate himself full-time to composition (fortunately for us) rather than to the career of virtuoso performer that he had already begun with great success but which would have required constant travel and physical stamina that soon appeared impossible to him.
For Dr. Gullo, the (re)discovery of the human figure of this extraordinary artist, who between the ages of twenty and thirty found himself having to almost completely reinvent his life and deal every moment with a nameless illness (apart from the infamous “tightness of the chest”), without cure and without prognosis, in which every day could perhaps be the last, is very important. Moreover, due to the “strangeness” of his condition, entirely misunderstood by the doctors of the time, Vivaldi had to contend with the significant economic consequences of his condition (such as the loss of significant income derived from celebrating Mass and the need for continuous assistance in daily activities), and with the negative prejudice of many who considered him a hypochondriac or, worse still, acting in bad faith.
Vivaldi himself describes his life undoubtedly as that of a person with significant chronic physical disability. Yet he managed not only to write an enormous amount of music (he remains one of the most prolific composers in the history of Music) but also to support his large family and become an international celebrity, one of the first composers with European distribution in the modern sense of the term (he published most of his works in print in Amsterdam, precisely with the intention of reaching the highest number of European cities in an almost global manner).
“All this makes Vivaldi a figure of extraordinary modernity”, concludes Dr. Gullo, “who speaks to today’s audience directly as both an artist and a man, and I am certain that it can have a profound and special meaning for many people with chronic and disabling illnesses”.
§ Giuseppe Gullo, “La malattia cronica di Antonio Vivaldi: una nuova luce su un vecchio mistero”, ISTITUTO ITALIANO ANTONIO VIVALDI STUDI VIVALDIANI 22 – 2022
Download the study at this link
