‘THE ARISTOCRATIC BURIALS OF THE SACRISTY OF SAN DOMENICO MAGGIORE IN NAPLES (XV-XVIII CENTURIES)’ As is well known, Palaeopathology is the science that studies diseases of the past through the direct examination of ancient human remains, whether skeletal or mummified. In recent years, palaeopathology has become an autonomous and highly specialised discipline, part of the large group of medical sciences, with strong interdisciplinary connotations. In fact, although it continues to be based on pathological anatomy, it also makes use of contributions from different disciplines, such as history, archaeology and physical anthropology, but, on the basis of historical and literary sources, it interfaces with the history of medicine, reconstructing the pathocenosis[1] of past populations. In the case of historical figures of great importance, such as the sovereigns and nobles buried in the sacristy of St. Domenico, including some Aragonese kings and important troop captains of Charles V and Philip II, of whom we possess extensive historical-archival documentation, it was possible to integrate nosographic data with palaeopathological data until an almost complete ‘medical record’ was reconstructed for each individual. The results of the study were organised according to a principle that favoured a detailed description of the individual characters, followed by various specialist summaries on the various topics. The ‘San Domenico Maggiore Project’ began in April 1983, when the Palaeopathology Section of the University of Pisa, with the authorisation of the Superintendency of Artistic and Historical Heritage of Campania, began the systematic study of the mummified bodies from the 15th-18th centuries that were coming to light following the restoration of the large wooden sarcophagi, or arches, in the sacristy of San Demenico. From 1984 to 1987, all the sarcophagi were carefully explored by a team of specialists from the University of Pisa's Institute of Anatomy and Pathological Histology. The mummified bodies were first radiographed and then subjected to anthropological and autopsy examinations on site, while the robes, some of them very valuable, were recovered, to be restored and exhibited in the museum of the Basilica by the Superintendency. Laboratory studies, which began in Pisa as early as the second half of the 1980s, continued in the following decades, hand in hand with the advancement of modern biomedical technologies applied to ancient materials, from trace elements to electron microscopy, immunohistochemistry, stable isotopes, and molecular palaeobiology. With the future development of bioarchaeology and palaeopathology, it will certainly be possible to obtain further, valuable information on the pathogenesis of these important personages of the southern nobility, true key figures in the history of the Renaissance and the Modern Age. Prof. Gino Fornaciari School of Specialisation in Archaeology, Department of Civilisations and Forms of Knowledge Former Full Professor of History of Medicine and Palaeopathology at University of Pisa [1] The concept of pathocenosis, i.e. the set of diseases that characterised populations in the past, is due to the great historian of medicine Mirko Drazen Grmek in his fundamental work ‘Les maladies à l'aube de la civilisation occidentale: recherches sur la réalité pathologique dans le monde grec préhistorique, archaïque, et classique’ of 1983.
Le sepolture aristocratiche della sacrestia di San Domenico Maggiore a Napoli (secoli XV-XVIII)
GINO FORNACIARI
2024-01-01
Abstract
‘THE ARISTOCRATIC BURIALS OF THE SACRISTY OF SAN DOMENICO MAGGIORE IN NAPLES (XV-XVIII CENTURIES)’ As is well known, Palaeopathology is the science that studies diseases of the past through the direct examination of ancient human remains, whether skeletal or mummified. In recent years, palaeopathology has become an autonomous and highly specialised discipline, part of the large group of medical sciences, with strong interdisciplinary connotations. In fact, although it continues to be based on pathological anatomy, it also makes use of contributions from different disciplines, such as history, archaeology and physical anthropology, but, on the basis of historical and literary sources, it interfaces with the history of medicine, reconstructing the pathocenosis[1] of past populations. In the case of historical figures of great importance, such as the sovereigns and nobles buried in the sacristy of St. Domenico, including some Aragonese kings and important troop captains of Charles V and Philip II, of whom we possess extensive historical-archival documentation, it was possible to integrate nosographic data with palaeopathological data until an almost complete ‘medical record’ was reconstructed for each individual. The results of the study were organised according to a principle that favoured a detailed description of the individual characters, followed by various specialist summaries on the various topics. The ‘San Domenico Maggiore Project’ began in April 1983, when the Palaeopathology Section of the University of Pisa, with the authorisation of the Superintendency of Artistic and Historical Heritage of Campania, began the systematic study of the mummified bodies from the 15th-18th centuries that were coming to light following the restoration of the large wooden sarcophagi, or arches, in the sacristy of San Demenico. From 1984 to 1987, all the sarcophagi were carefully explored by a team of specialists from the University of Pisa's Institute of Anatomy and Pathological Histology. The mummified bodies were first radiographed and then subjected to anthropological and autopsy examinations on site, while the robes, some of them very valuable, were recovered, to be restored and exhibited in the museum of the Basilica by the Superintendency. Laboratory studies, which began in Pisa as early as the second half of the 1980s, continued in the following decades, hand in hand with the advancement of modern biomedical technologies applied to ancient materials, from trace elements to electron microscopy, immunohistochemistry, stable isotopes, and molecular palaeobiology. With the future development of bioarchaeology and palaeopathology, it will certainly be possible to obtain further, valuable information on the pathogenesis of these important personages of the southern nobility, true key figures in the history of the Renaissance and the Modern Age. Prof. Gino Fornaciari School of Specialisation in Archaeology, Department of Civilisations and Forms of Knowledge Former Full Professor of History of Medicine and Palaeopathology at University of Pisa [1] The concept of pathocenosis, i.e. the set of diseases that characterised populations in the past, is due to the great historian of medicine Mirko Drazen Grmek in his fundamental work ‘Les maladies à l'aube de la civilisation occidentale: recherches sur la réalité pathologique dans le monde grec préhistorique, archaïque, et classique’ of 1983.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
