The study of the Medici family of Florence represents an excellent example of integration between information provided by the historical sources and the data obtained through paleopathological examination. The Medici were one of the most important families of the Italian Renaissance and their health status is known to us thanks to the amount of details reported in contemporary archival documents, including letters of the Medici themselves to other relatives, missives of the ambassadors, and reports of the court physicians. From these records it emerges that several personages were affected by different pathologies, the true nature of which should be clarified. The members of the family belonging to the branch of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany, which began with John of the Black Bands (1498-1526) and ended with Giangastone (1671-1737), were buried under the floor of the Medici Chapels in the Basilica of S. Lorenzo in Florence. Starting from 2004 a multidisciplinary project allowed the exhumation of a number of individuals, whose skeletal remains were studied by macroscopic, radiological, and molecular analyses. The results of this study were compared with the nosographic details reported in written documents. In some cases, the diagnosis made by court physicians was correct and was confirmed by the paleopathological analysis; in other cases the nosological entities were not correctly identified and the modern study permitted to ascertain the true nature of the lesions and also to reveal the conditions affecting the Medici, which otherwise would have been unknown. We present a series of examples, including Joan of Austria (1547-1578), Ferdinand I (1549-1609), Cardinal Carlo (1595-1666) and Don Filippino (1577-1582). In conclusion, in the Medici project the combination of paleopathography and paleopathology was particularly fertile in the study of past diseases of historical personages.
Combining paleopathography and paleopathology: the example of the Medici, Grand Dukes of Florence
Giuffra V;Fornaciari G
2018-01-01
Abstract
The study of the Medici family of Florence represents an excellent example of integration between information provided by the historical sources and the data obtained through paleopathological examination. The Medici were one of the most important families of the Italian Renaissance and their health status is known to us thanks to the amount of details reported in contemporary archival documents, including letters of the Medici themselves to other relatives, missives of the ambassadors, and reports of the court physicians. From these records it emerges that several personages were affected by different pathologies, the true nature of which should be clarified. The members of the family belonging to the branch of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany, which began with John of the Black Bands (1498-1526) and ended with Giangastone (1671-1737), were buried under the floor of the Medici Chapels in the Basilica of S. Lorenzo in Florence. Starting from 2004 a multidisciplinary project allowed the exhumation of a number of individuals, whose skeletal remains were studied by macroscopic, radiological, and molecular analyses. The results of this study were compared with the nosographic details reported in written documents. In some cases, the diagnosis made by court physicians was correct and was confirmed by the paleopathological analysis; in other cases the nosological entities were not correctly identified and the modern study permitted to ascertain the true nature of the lesions and also to reveal the conditions affecting the Medici, which otherwise would have been unknown. We present a series of examples, including Joan of Austria (1547-1578), Ferdinand I (1549-1609), Cardinal Carlo (1595-1666) and Don Filippino (1577-1582). In conclusion, in the Medici project the combination of paleopathography and paleopathology was particularly fertile in the study of past diseases of historical personages.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
