Digital reconstruction of Girolamo Fracastoro's face: A 3D bust derived from historical portraits

Girolamo Fracastoro (1478–1553) was an Italian physician and polymath whose work contributed to the historical understanding of contagious diseases. In his poem Syphilis sive morbus gallicus (1530), he introduced the term “syphilis,” later adopted in medical literature. Over the centuries, numerous artistic representations of the author's face have been produced in engravings, paintings, and sculptures, forming an iconographic corpus of this historical figure. The present study aimed to develop a three-dimensional representation of Fracastoro's face in the form of a digital bust derived from historical portraits. A comparative analysis of iconographic sources from open-access digital collections was conducted, and the images were used as references for constructing a three-dimensional model in free and open-source 3D modeling software. The model was then fabricated through 3D printing and finished to simulate a bronze sculpture. The bust was incorporated into the exhibition Syphilis: History, Science and Art , organized by the Brazilian Ministry of Health, where it served as a historical contextualization element at the exhibition entrance. The project demonstrates how digital reconstruction techniques can support the visualization of historical figures and contribute to science communication and health education. The three-dimensional model was made publicly available under an open license, enabling reuse in academic, museological, and educational contexts.