How the Italian press refers to Francesco Mallegni, professor of paleontology at Pisa University, in recognition of the numerous studies he has made in recent years of defunct Italians.Daniel Williams' fascinating story of the furious program of exhumations of Italy's long-dead notables appeared in the February 20 Washington Post. From the article:
- Gino Fornaciari, medical sleuth, gazed down at the remain of Cangrande della Scala, the most powerful man in the history of Verona. Was it possible he was poisoned? It was high time to resolve the mystery. The man has been dead for 675 years.
It was a scene from a scientific mania in Italy: the unearthing of the dead and the famous. The exhumation was part of a dizzying round of investigations of royalty, saints, popes, and other ancient notables. A researcher in northern Italy exhumed the remains of the medieval poet Petrarch last year in order to study his physique, the cause of death, and to make a model of his facial features.
This summer, Fornaciari will begin exhuming 49 sets of remains belonging to the mighty Medici family of Florence. A professor of medical history, he teaches at Pisa University, Italy's center for study of the dead.
His colleague Mallegni's identification of the remains of Giotto, the great early Renaissance fresco painter, created a sensation a few years ago. Examinations of the body revealed concentrations of arsenic, lead, and aluminum, probably from long exposure to paint. The toxic metals didn't seem to shorten his life. He died at about 70.
The imminent Medici family examinations have aroused surprisingly little controversy among church and other officials.
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