In 1919, Konstantin Tretiakoff first used the term ‘corps de Lewy’ (Lewy bodies) and reported the presence of these bodies in the SNc of patients with idiopathic and post-encephalitic Parkinsonism.

Fritz Heinrich Jakob Lewy described, for the first time, in 1912, novel peculiar inclusions in neurons of certain brain nuclei in patients with Paralysis agitans, and compared his finding to the amyloid bodies described by Lafora one year before.