AbstractThis paper reviews the history of medical knowledge of eating disorders in Italy. It starts with the first examples of the medical interpretation of starvation during the Middle and Renaissance Ages, continues with the seminal figure of Brugnoli in the late XIX century, describes the neurological interpretations of the 1930s, the return to psychiatry in the 1940s and 1950s, the rise to international prominence of Mara Selvini Palazzoli in the 1960s and 1970s and ends with a description of the present state of the art. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.