INTRODUCTION
History of Nephrology 10
Natale Gaspare De Santo1, Biagio Ricciardi2, Boleslaw Rutkowski3, Vincenzo Savica4, Athanasios A. Diamandopoulos5
(1) Department of Medicine, II University of Naples (Italy)
(2) Division of Nephrology, Milazzo Hospital (Italy)
(3) Department of Medicine University of Gdansk (Poland)
(4) A. Monroy Institute, NCR, Palermo, (Italy)
(5) University Medical School, Athens, (Greece)
Address correspondence to: Natale G De Santo; Department of Medicine, SUN Policlinico Pad 17 – Nephrology 80131 Naples, Italy; Cell:+39
348 4117376 e-mail: nataleg.desanto@unina2.it
On history
On numbers
“Where Do We Come From. What Are We. Where Are
We Going”.
These are the words that Paul Gaugin inscribed
in French, without question marks and in capitalized
words, on one of his 1897 paintings now at the
Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. These are literary, the
very words, now posed with question marks, that
Giuseppe Galasso, professor of Contemporary History
at the University of Naples used in his description of
what is history. “History is the mirror of the present,
it nurtures our thinking and our identity. The past
has no recipe for today, and we cannot rewrite it
at our will. However the study of the past is the inescapable route to walk, to have a look into past in
order to understand it. It represents the highroad to
social aggregation. I am not aware of any human society which misses the opportunity to write its own
narrative. The aim is to answer the fundamental
questions: Where do we come from? Where are we going?
How do we proceed? The answers to these questions
disclose the fundamental function of history. History
is not magistra vitae (teacher of life) and does not
trace for us the road map for the future which remains our very personal and demanding task.
Writing the past, however, is always done departing
from it but by taking into consideration the history
of the world of those who presently write it, since, as
said, history is just the mirror of the world of those
who write on it” [1].
In writing the history of nephrology, as in most histories of science, numbers are strong signals, are
precise, never emphatic, do not lie, and express our
rational soul. Numbers have a ”heart and a soul” and
“allow us to answer the question who are we?, they
are what allows us to make ourselves identified” [2].
As such, the number 10 in the title of this note
indicates better than any wordy editorial what has
been the work of the IAHN, an Association dedicated
to the history of nephrology that began its work even
before being organized and registered as an organization. In the present context History of Nephrology 10
expresses our history, the location, the reasons and
the work product of our ten congresses in NaplesMontecassino, Kos, Padua, Taormina, Montecassino,
Gdansk, Taormina, Torun, Olympia-Patra, and Milazzo. It gives the coordinates of our position, the
point where we are and pays a tribute to our
founders, our presidents, our councilors and
members who can be met on our website.
History of Nephrology 10 honors the memory of our
member who planted with us the seeds of IAHN and
nurtured it with their work before leaving this world.
We like to remember here these past Olympian
members of IAHN: Faustino Avagliano, learned,
humble but charismatic Director of the Montecassino
Archives at the Abbey who prepared for us a catalogue in Latin of the nine codices exhibited during
our inaugural founding conference in Naples/Montecassino [Figure 1], Vittorio Bonomini, Arturo Borsatti, Anna Claudia Esposito, Carl W. Gottschalk,
Klaus Hierholzer, Eva-Maria Kinne-Saffran, Saulo
Klahr, Domenico Mancino, Spyros Marketos, Vincenzo Mezzogiorno, Hirotoshi Mori, Gabriel Richet,
George Schreiner, Karl Julius Ullrich, and Gregory
Vosnides.
History of Nephrology 10 also reflects an additional
story, that of our core activity of promoting the
history of nephrology as represented by 153 manuscripts published in regular issues of American Journal
of Nephrology and in the 4 monographs published by
Karger. To these we have added 158 manuscripts
published in the Journal of Nephrology and the 4 monographs published by Wichtig Editore, all listed in our
website. Herewith we add 30 papers in the sup-
On history of nephrology
This definition of history also means that the majority of us write the history of nephrology by taking
into account our own concepts of the current state
of nephrology worldwide and as perceived from our
own local and regional history of nephrology. Our reports are thus the product of our view of the past
seen by our own eyeglasses, reflecting our personal
characters as the model used to recall the creators of
the past, and our ways to relate to each other as the
model to interpret the relationship of the past.
G Ital Nefrol 2016; 33 (S66) – ISSN 1724-5590 – © 2016 Società Italiana di Nefrologia
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plement and 1 paper by Garabed Eknoyan in the
regular issue of Giornale Italiano di Nephrologia 2016
and in our 9th monograph.
Finally, History of Nephrology 10 tells us that since
2015 we have started an exciting collaboration with
ERA-EDTA in a joint effort to promote history sessions in their congress and their official participation
in IAHN congresses.
Acknowledgements
We thank Honorary Member Garabed Eknoyan, who
in the spirit of a founder of IAHN is always available
to help in any task, as humble as it may be, for the advancement of the history of nephrology.
We thank Biagio Di Iorio, the last ring of a chain
of learned SIN (Società Italiana di Nefrologia) editors
with interest in the History of Nephrology.
Thanks are due to Simona Saviano for creative
support throughout all stages of this supplement.
We also thank the people of Tesi SpA, (Roreto di
Cherasco, CN, Italy) publishers of Giornale Italiano di
Nefrologia for their enthusiastic support in publishing
these proceedings.
The 9th Congress of the International
Association for the History of Nephrology
in Milazzo (Italy)
9th IAHN Congress
The 9th IAHN Congress, endorsed by ERA-EDTA and
the Italian Society of Nephrology, and The Italian Institute for Philosophical Studies, took place at the
Eolian Hotel in Milazzo (Messina, Sicily) on October
Figure 1.
Montecassino code, small catalog
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22-24, 2015. The Italian Society of Nephrology endorsed the congress as one of the 30 events that
could receive support in 2015. The collaboration with
the ERA-EDTA allowed for a joint special tribute to
Gabriel Richet. Andrzej Wiecek, President of ERAEDTA gave a State of the Art Lecture on The History
of Chronic Kidney Disease and the Ageing Process,
and Angel Argiles, as ERA-EDTA Representative, gave
a talk “On the Discovery of Urea”.
The Congress was organized superbly by Professor Biagio Ricciardi. It was composed of 15 session
and based on 45 presentations. Congress president
Biagio Ricciardi gave an introduction on Arnaldo da
Villanova, the great Catalan physician of the 14th
century. Arnaldo who was personal doctor of popes
Bonifacio VIII, Clemens IX, and Benedict XI, is buried
in the Castle Montalbano Elicona, near Milazzo [Figure 2]. A short inspiring visit to the Castle
and the tomb was organized for the participants and
will enrich the memory of the congress of those who
attended.
Honoring Gabriel Richet
A joint IAHN-ERA-EDTA session was dedicated to
Gabriel Richet, Honorary Member of IAHN. The
session was chaired by Natale G. De Santo and
Garabed Eknoyan. It started with a presentation by
Raymond Ardaillou, former fellow and friend of
Richet. He spoke from the mind and the soul about
the signal contributions of “Gabriel Richet: The man
and the scientist” in the framework of the
nephrology of his times. In the following presentation by Carmela Bisaccia and Natale G. De Santo
(Twenty years of collaboration with Gabriel Richet)
summarized their common work with Richet by illustrating samples of the 40 letters (only 2 by computer,
the remaining handwritten) Gabriel Richet had sent
over the years, on the genesis and progress of the
various papers they had co-authored and especially
the book on “La Costruzione della Scienza Clinica –
Hunter, De Sault, and Cotugno” (Naples, 2002).
Garabed Eknoyan related on his personal experiences
with Gabriel Richet, and the major contributions of
Richet to the history of nephrology following his retirement. He highlighted the difficulty Richet had in
writing in English in his quest for perfection in
everything he undertook. J Stewart Cameron centered his presentation on “My friend Gabriel Richet”
relating on the strengths of their lifelong relationship. Boleslaw Rutkowski referred to the ceremonies granting Gabriel Richet the Honorary Medal
of the University of Gdansk in 2006. Athanasios Diamandopoulos spoke about “Gabriel Richet honorary
member of IAHN” and illustrated some of the topics
covered by Richet at past IAHN congresses. Leon
Fine, who shared with Richet the editorship of
Nephron (the first journal of the ISN) referred to selected events in their collaboration highlighting the
strong personality of Richet. Guido Bellinghieri, by
means of a video clip of the last presentation at an
IAHN congress of Gabriel Richet revived the image
of Richet talking about Francophone Nephrology in
Taormina in October 2008. It was a most touching
Figure 2.
Tomb of Arnaldo da Villanova (left) and inscription on marble remembering his presence (right) at the Castle of Montalbano Elicona, Milazzo, Italy.
moment for everyone to hear again his voice, and
to recall his usual vivacious and enthusiastic presentation style. The session closed by Biagio Ricciardi,
President of the IX IAHN Congress, who presented
the medal of the congress to Raymond Ardaillou.
Honorary Members
Garabed Eknoyan (Houston) was awarded a diploma
of honorary membership of IAHN in Milazzo, thus
joining Ori Better (Haifa), J. Stewart Cameron
(London), Bernardo D’Onorio (Gaeta), Silvana Favaro
(Padua), Klaus Hierholzer (Berlin), Charles Kleeman
(Los Angeles), Gerardo Marotta (Naples), Tadeusz Orlowski (Warsaw), Gabriel Richet (Paris), George
Schreiner (Great Falls), Donald Seldin (Dallas). Shaul
Massry was elected as an IAHN honorary member
and will receive the award at the next congress.
Council
Vincenzo Savica was elected President, Janusz Ostrowski, president elect, Athanasios A. Diamandopoulos past president, Lorenzo Calò (2015-2019),
secretary and treasurer for the next two years, and
Katarina Derzsiova council member for 2015-2019.
They will join current council members Ayse Balat
(2013-2017), August Heidland (2013-2017), Antonio
Mezzogiorno (2013-2017), and Natale G. De Santo (ex
officio).
The 10th IAHN Meeting
Planned to take place in 2017 in Wloclawek (Poland)
and will be organized by Janusz Ostrowski, Chief of
Nephrology at the Provincial Hospital of Wloclawek.
The 11th IAH Meeting
Foreseen to take place in Padua (Italy) in 2019 under
the presidency of Professor Lorenzo Calò.
IAHN website
Biagio Ricciardi will continue to be responsible for
the IAHN website for the next 3 years.
Medals of the President of the Congress
The specifically coined silver medals (goldsmith
Francesco Cosio from Messina) of the congress were
awarded by Biagio Ricciardi to Andrzej Wiecek President of ERA-EDTA, Professor Raymond Ardaillou
main speaker at the Richet’s session and Athanasios
Diamandopoulos for his presidency of IAHN.
References
[1] Galasso G. La storia è lo specchio del presente. Forma le nostre
credenze e identità. Corriere della Sera, Milan, August 6, 2015, p.38, col
1-6
G Ital Nefrol 2016; 33 (S66) – ISSN 1724-5590 – © 2016 Società Italiana di Nefrologia
[2] Napoletano R. L’altra Domenica I Radio 24. Il sole 24ore.21/11/2015,
p.23, col.1-2
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