Syphilis : po?me en quatre chants (1851) by Barth?lemy, 1796-1867; Fracastoro, Girolamo, 1478-1553. The history of syphilis has been well studied, but the exact origin of syphilis is unknown. There are two primary hypotheses: one proposes that syphilis was carried from the Americas to Europe by the crew of Christopher Columbus, the other proposes that syphilis previously existed in Europe but went unrecognized.