Topics: Culture
01.02.2006
The Medici were the most illustrious family in Renaissance Italy. For three
centuries they were interred in the chapel of San Lorenzo in Florence, where a
paleopathological team is engaged in examining their remains. Findings on the
disorders that afflicted the Medici will shed light on the evolution of
diseases that affect mankind today.
On 25 May 2004, an international team of palaeopathologists, anthropologists, historians and archaeologists descended on the church of San Lorenzo in Florence. They were officially inaugurating the Medici Project, a palaeopathological research programme being undertaken in one of the city ’s most beautiful churches whose Chapel is the final resting place of many of the leading Medici.
The Medici, one of the world’s most powerful families, ruled Florence during the golden era of the
Renaissance. Not only were they major patrons of art and culture, but through
their wealth and their political acumen, they married into the royal houses of
France and Austria and, in the XVIth century, produced two Popes, Leo X and
Clement VII.
No other family epitomizes the full glory of the Florentine Renaissance better
than this dynasty and Lorenzo the Magnificent can rightly be regarded as a
brilliant light which illuminated not only the city of Florence, but the whole
of Italy and the world beyond.
As members of the ruling class, the Medici were entombed upon their deaths and
great care was taken to preserve their remains. From the XVth century to the
end of the XVIIIth, they were buried in the Old Sacristy and the New Sacristy
of the Chapel of San Lorenzo, which had long enjoyed the family
’s patronage.
In 1857, it was discovered that the coffins, then free-standing above ground in
these rooms, had been plundered. In consequence, most of them were transported
to the crypt of the Church, for protection. Only those remains preserved in the
marble tombs in the Old and in the New Sacristy were left in their original
state.
During the Second World War, the Michelangelo statues above the marble tomb in
the New Sacristy were removed to safeguard them from bombing. At the same time,
the marble slabs covering the tombs were removed and the contents examined by a
group of anthropologists appointed to carry out an
‘anthropological–historical study of the bones’. The researchers left no record of what they found apart from some general
studies. However, they seriously damaged the remains, because, in accordance
with the prevailing anthropological methods of the day, they
‘shaved’ all the skulls, in order to measure them.
Nowadays, the Medici Project can be supported by new methodologies and by more
advanced research techniques, in line with the most recent advances in
palaeopathology.
Palaeopathology is the scientific study of the morphological remains of the
diseases that occurred in the past. Only in the last few decades has it come to
be regarded as an autonomous discipline, in which archaeology, physical
anthropology and pathologic anatomy all play a part.
Through the examination of human remains, palaeopathology combines the
methodologies of archaeology, physical anthropology and pathology to reveal the
morphological traces of ancient diseases, helping modern researchers to
understand the evolution of the illnesses that affect mankind today.
The project will carry out anthropological and radiological examination of the
corpses and the studies will include: anthropology, palaeonutrition, histology,
histochemistry, immunohistochemistry, electronic microscopy, molecular biology
(study of residual DNA) and the identification of ancient pathogen agents.
The research will involve a number of specialist approaches and the diseases
diagnosed will be subdivided into two classes. One will include
‘actual diseases’, defined as important pathological conditions (tumours, tuberculosis, leprosy
and some major infectious diseases); the other will group
‘minor’ pathologies, showing less severe features, but which still afflict the life of
the sufferer (arthritis, anaemias and diseases due to deficiencies). The
influence of dietary, working, environmental and health conditions on the life
of these ancient people will also be directly studied. The target is to obtain
data regarding the development of diseases, with particular reference to the
causes of death. Tradition has it that many members of the Medici Family were
affected by gout, as evidenced by the nick-name of Piero, called
‘the Gouty’.
Comparison of the data obtained from the contemporaneous and subsequent
populations will make it possible to draw up a dynamic pattern, showing
pathogenesis evolution during the Renaissance. This part of the project will be
realized by comparing data obtained from palaeopathological studies with those
of historical documents. The biomedical study of such a great number of
individuals is fundamental to the general enrichment of current knowledge of
the environment, way of life and diseases of the Medici Family.
The team consists of a number of experts belonging to the University of Pisa
(Prof. G. Fornaciari, Dottoressa A. Vitiello) and to the University of Florence
(Prof. D. Lippi, Prof. N. Villari, Dr M.M. D
’Elios, Dr A.A. Conti), but other Associations are involved in the Project: the
Superintendency of Florentine Monuments (Dottoressa M. Bietti), Opificio delle
Pietre Dure, Opera Mediceo Laurenziana. All of their efforts are addressed to
carrying out this Project, which offers a unique opportunity to study the
health of the Medici and to provide for better conservation of the tombs
themselves.
One serious uncertainty for the Medici Project was the flood of 1966 when the
River Arno overflowed its banks, inundating the crypt. It was several weeks
before the muddy waters drained away and it was impossible to predict what
damage might have been caused.
The Project started its work with the tombs of Cosimo I, his wife Eleonora of
Toledo and two of their sons, Giovanni and Garcia. Because their tombs are
grouped in the first lateral chapel on the right they were easier to screen
from the view of the many tourists who visit San Lorenzo.
After raising the marble flooring, the first surprise was a very heavy slab of
stone, under a layer of rubble, which required the use of a pulley. Three
rectangular chambers lined with bricks and plaster preserved the zinc ossuaries
in which anthropologists had reburied the bones in 1947. Eleonora and Cosimo
were buried in two different caskets but within the same chamber.
The remains were examined in a field lab set up in a nearby chapel. Although no
soft tissue was preserved, the waters of the Arno had not significantly damaged
the bones which were, overall, in good condition.
The lives of Cosimo and Eleonora are mirrored in their bones, which show
interesting details regarding the numerous pregnancies of Eleonora and the
robust skeleton of her husband.
The Medici were also legendary for their astuteness involving intrigue and, on
occasion, murder. Official documents state that their two sons, Giovanni and
Garcia, died during a trip to the South of Tuscany, where malaria was endemic.
Other sources, however, allege that Garcia killed Giovanni and that he was then
murdered by Cosimo himself. Examination of their bones offered no evidence of
violence.
With Francesco I we move into the darker side of the Medicis, as he is said,
together with his second wife Bianca Cappello, to have been poisoned by his
brother Ferdinando. After their sudden death, which occurred in their villa in
Poggio a Caiano, near Florence, Ferdinando ordered an autopsy to be performed.
Documents relate that he forbade the burial of Bianca in the Medici Chapel and
she was assumed to have been interred in a common grave.
A recently discovered document has thrown new light on this story. It says that
the internal organs of both Francesco and Bianca were buried in clay vessels in
a church near the Villa and that the body of Bianca Cappello was buried near
the entrance of the Church of San Lorenzo.
An archaeological survey in the Church near Poggio a Caiano has made it possible
to recover some interesting elements which are now being studied by Prof. F.
Mari and Prof. E. Bertol (University of Florence), in order to discover traces
of poison.
This is the only opportunity we have, as the bones of Francesco were completely
shaved by the researchers of the past century and the tomb of Bianca has not
yet been exhumed.
The tomb of Gian Gastone, the last Medici, presented one of the greatest
surprises. After the removal of the usual marble slab with the brass plaque,
brick-and-stone masonry appeared which made it impossible to reach the opening
of the tomb itself. It was eventually decided to lift a circular grey stone,
with the aid of suction cups.
This revealed a layer of sand and another circular stone. Underneath we found
stairs leading down to a crypt, whose existence was completely unknown to us.
In the crypt, several coffins lay smashed on the floor – a result of the Arno flooding. Many of these were the coffins of children, but
it has so far proved impossible to identity them.
Beneath the lid of the greatest coffin lay Gian Gastone, with his crown and
medals, which pious hands placed there 250 years ago.
It was a marvellous surprise and, as a result of these finds, our next months
will be spent conserving the artefacts from Gian Gastone
’s tomb and trying to identify the anonymous children who rest with him in the
crypt.
Several dozen more Medici are buried in the chapel and waiting to be studied. We
face a very great challenge, but it offers an important opportunity to
reconstruct the history of a family, which gave to the world politicians,
queens, statesmen and patrons of art and culture.
One final word. It is not inappropriate for the Medici to be the subject of a
medical research project. The name
‘Medici’ evokes the family’s origins as doctors or apothecaries and, allegedly, the right to add ‘palle’ or balls to the coat of arms was granted by Charlemagne to a Medici ancestor
claimed to have been his physician. One suggestion is that the balls on the
Medici coat-of-arms represent cupping glasses or
‘pills’ administered to the Emperor.
Prof. Donatella Lippi