Historical story

Dante Alighieri was a Narcoleptic

Dante Alighieri

In 800 Cesare Lombroso, the controversial inventor of criminal anthropology, attributed the frequent falls and dream visions of which Dante Alighieri claimed to be often prey to epilepsy, but according to a recent study, the great poet was instead narcoleptic.

narcolepsy it is a disorder that forces you to suffer sudden bouts of sleep during the day which it is impossible to escape.

The evidence?

Dante himself provides them to us in his Divine Comedy , in which not only the author claims to have started the journey numb from sleep, but where the references to physical exhaustion and the urgent need to sleep, often as a result of strong emotions, are continuous.

Further references to the typical symptoms of the disease would also be found in Vita Nova .