But what did he actually die of? Mozart’s medical history is like an inverted pyramid: a small corpus of primary documentation supports a large body of secondary literature. There is a small quantity of direct eye-witness testimony concerning the last illness and death, and a larger quantity of reporting of what eye witnesses are alleged to have said. Altogether it would not cover ten pages; some of it is vague, and some downright unreliable. All too often later writers have used this data uncritically to support pet theories. They have even invented new symptoms, nowhere recorded in the primary sources.