A 16th-century case of acquired Dysgraphia

David Cram and Ruth Campbell
Jesus College University of Oxford | Goldsmiths’ College University of London
Summary

The purpose of this article is to draw attention to one of the earliest historical reports, to the authors’ knowledge, of a specific acquired agraphia: the first-hand account of a man who lost his ability to use letters in writing as a result of a battle injury in 1536. The description occurs as an interpolation in Thomas Wilson’s Arte of Rhetorique (1553), in the course of a discussion of the localisation of the memory in the head. The case is described in sufficient detail to allow a tentative identification of the sort of disorder that was involved.

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