86,616 research outputs found
Practices and structures for skeletonization and mummification of bodies in southern Italy of late Modern age
No full textIn 2005 and 2006 a paleopathology team of the University of Pisa carried out a survey in north-eastern Sicily to investigate the funerary structures of Late Modern Age for the treatment of the bodies, still largely ignored or misinterpreted from the anthropological and paleopathological point of view. The survey allowed to create a first inventory of mummified remains still in situ in the crypts of north-eastern Sicily and to identify two types of surviving architectural structures for the control of bodies decay, preserved in the hypogea rooms under the churches: the ʻsitting colatoioʼ, aimed at favoring the skeletonization, and the ʻhorizontal colatoioʼ, used to obtain natural mummification by dehydration. The sitting colatoio consists in a masonry seat with a hole at the center of the sitting plane, used for desiccation-release of bones through the down flow of the cadaveric fluids (Fig.1). The horizontal colatoio are very small rooms provided with a horizontal grill, made of wood or pottery tubules, on which the corpse was placed. The body, lying on the grill, would slowly lose its fluids through the skin (Fig. 2). The survey, together with another archaeological research in Campania region in southern Italy and an accurate archival research about the ʻterrasanteʼ, the funerary crypts reserved to the members of Confraternities of Naples (fig. 3), allowed us to propose an new interpretation about use and destination of “colatoi”, with a reflection about the concept of death in terms of duration and of secondary burial, first developed by cultural anthropologists Robert Hertz and Arnold Van Gennep. Both these structures controlled the corpse’s decay and transformed the body in stable and durable simulacra of the dead. The ancient concepts of death as duration and the practices of secondary burial, first analyzed by Robert Hertz in the past century, still survive in many areas of southern Italy. According to these ancestral beliefs, death was perceived not as a sudden event, but as a long-lasting process, during which the dead had to go through a transitory phase, passing from one state of existence to another. The present study demonstrates that these archaic concepts, which seemed to have been uprooted by the Catholic Church, tenaciously resisted in the heart of Modern Mediterranean Europe until Contemporary Age.
Bibliography:
FORNACIARI A., GIUFFRA V., PEZZINI F., Processi di tanatometamorfosi: pratiche di scolatura deicorpi e mummificazione nel regno delle Due Sicilie. Arch. Post Med. 2007; 11: 11-49.
FORNACIARI A., GIUFFRA V., PEZZINI F., Secondary burial and mummification practices in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Mortality 2010; 15/ 3: 223-249.
FORNACIARI A., Skeleton or mummy: practices and structures for secondary burial in southern Italy in modern and contemporary age. Med. Secoli 2013; 25/1: 205-38.
HERTZ R., Contribution à l’étude sur la représentation collective de la mort. Année Sociologique 1907; 10: 48-137.
PARDO I., L’elaborazione del lutto in un quartiere tradizionale di Napoli. Rassegna italiana di Sociologia 1982, 4: 335-369.
PEZZINI F., Doppie esequie e scolatura dei corpi, Med. Secoli 2006; 18/3: 897-924
BACCIO BALDINI (1517-1589), PROTOMEDICO ALLA CORTE MEDICEA TRA UMANESIMO E SPERIMENTALISMO
No full textThe article aims to shed light on some particular aspects of the activity and the scientific thought of Baccio Baldini, Director of the Laurentian Library and Court physician of the Medici family in Florence. The analysis of his work as a humanist and the recovery of some unpublished documents enable to define the figure of Baldini as a paradigmatic example of the court physicians of modern age in Italy, highlighting the complementarity between humanism and experimentalism in the Renaissance medicine
Schede
No full textIl Catalogo raccoglie circa 200 strumenti appartenuti all’Ospedale Psichiatrico di Lucca, un istituto che ha origine nella seconda metà del XVIII secolo. Il catalogo costituisce, oltre che un esempio di salvaguardia del patrimonio medico e scientifico, un documento di prima mano per la ricostruzione della vita all’interno di quei microcosmi, oggi non più esistenti, che in gergo erano chiamati “manicomi”. In tal modo, esso offre un notevole contributo alla ricostruzione storica ed alla conservazione della memoria in un ambito di grande rilevanza della medicina, come quello della storia della psichiatria in età contemporanea, fornendo anche nuovi spunti per una riflessione scientifica
Processi di tanatometamorfosi: pratiche di scolatura dei corpi e mummificazione nel Regno delle Due Sicilie
No full textNell'estate del 2005 e del 2006 il team di paleopatologia dell'Università di Pisa ha condotto una ricognizione nella Sicilia nord-orientale per investigare le strutture funerarie post-medievali presenti nella regione. Le strutture rappresentano un tipo di apparato funerario ancora largamente sottostudiato e incompreso. Infatti, dopo la morte, i corpi di laici e preti erano sistemati in speciali strutture chiamate "colatoi", di cui sono state individuate due tipologie: il "colatoio a seduta" e il "colatoio orizzontale". Attraverso questa ricognizione è stato possibile proporre un'interpretazione sul loro uso e sulla loro destinazione. Si fornisce inoltre un inventario degli abbondanti resti mummificati ancora in situ
Storia della Medicina e della Psicologia
No full textNato con intenti prevalentemente didattici, "Storia della Medicina e della Psicologia" si propone come un testo di consultazione chiara e completa, sia per gli studenti che per gli appassionati della materia, sui tentativi fatti dall'uomo per opporsi ai mali, fisici e psichici, che lo afflissero fin dai tempi più antichi. A partire dai poemi omerici, passando per i padri della medicina, Ippocrate e Galeno, e per la "rivoluzione" alessandrina fino ad arrivare alla riscoperta delle antiche conoscenze con il basso medioevo; da questo momento in poi, un susseguirsi di scoperte e contributi da parte di sperimentatori e innovatori permette di arrivare alla medicina moderna che ha finalmente reso l'uomo in grado di intervenire attivamente sui processi patologici e sul decorso delle malattie
Secondary burial and mummification practices in the Kingdom of the two Sicilies
No full textThe ancient concepts of death as duration and the practices of secondary burial, first analysed by Robert Hertz, still survive in many areas of southern Italy. According to these beliefs death was perceived not as a sudden event, but as a long-lasting process, during which the deceased person had to go through a transitory phase, passing from one state of existence to another. A recent archival research about the terresante, the funerary hypogea reserved to the members of Confraternities in the ecclesiastic underground of Naples, documents the persistence of secondary burial rites in southern Italy during the Modern Age. Furthermore, a survey conducted in the province of Messina in eastern Sicily has identified two surviving architectural structures appointed for the treatment of the bodies: the “sitting colatoio” aimed at favouring the skeletonization and the “horizontal colatoio” used to obtain mummification by dehydration. Both these structures controlled the corpse’s decay and transformed the body in a stable and durable simulacre of the dead
Cosas del medio ambiente / Elzcar Santiago Giuffra ; prólogo de José Enrique Rodó
No full text137 p., 3 f. ; 19 c
Renaissance mercurial therapy in the mummies of Saint Domenico Maggiore in Naples: a palaeopathological and palaeotoxicological approach
No full textThis study was designed to evaluate the use of mercury therapy in the Italian noble classes of the Renaissance through the toxicological analysis of hair content. Mercury has stability and a long half-life in hair, representing a great resource not only for forensic toxicological analysis but also for archaeological research on mercurial exposure in past populations. The hair of fourteen mummified individuals of the Aragon and vice-royal court of Naples, buried in the Neapolitan Basilica of Saint Domenico Maggiore (15–18th centuries), was analysed by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) and flame emission spectroscopy (FES). Out of the fourteen individuals, four presented mercury concentrations in the hair washing liquid indicating external perimortem application (in one case clearly linked to embalming, in three cases probably associated with topical therapeutic practices), three showed no traces of mercury, and seven had mercury values in hair ranging from 411 to 47 ppm, which indicate prolonged exposure in life to the metal. The historical identification of most of the mummified bodies with important nobles of Naples has allowed to compare the toxicological analyses with the nosography of the individuals and with the palaeopathological results deriving from the direct study of their bodies. Prolonged exposure in life to the metal was most likely due to mercurial anti-syphilitic therapy, as a consequence of its indiscriminate use in Renaissance therapies and, indirectly, as an effect of the extraordinary spread of venereal syphilis in the Italian upper classes during the “epidemic” phase of the disease
Histology of pulmonary tuberculosis in a 19th-century mummy from Comiso (Sicily, Italy)
No full textObjective: The aim of this study is to investigate potential evidence of tuberculosis in mummified remains. Materials: The natural mummy of an anonymous friar from the mortuary chapel of the church of Santa Maria della Grazia in Comiso (Sicily) METHODS: The mummy was studied through macroscopic examination; tissue sampling was conducted through breaches in the dorsal surface of the thorax. Radiological, histological and immunohistochemical analyses were performed on the pulmonary parenchyma. Results: The mummified remains are those of an adult male approximately 25-45 years old. In the left lung, 7 intra parenchymal calcified nodules were detected. The fibrocalcific nodules showed some lacunae surrounded by fibrous tissue containing amorphous necrotic, most probably caseous, material. Conclusions: These findings are compatible with a chronic infectious-inflammatory disease, likely a calcification of a previous Ghon complex of an apical nodular tuberculosis. Significance: Our study supports the great spread of the disease in the 19th century; a time when it reached its maximum peak in Europe. Limitations: Molecular investigations failed to detect traces of Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA in the sample. Suggestions for further research: The investigation on the mummies from Comiso is still in progress, and further analyses will potentially provide paleopathological data on this community of Modern Age which could be integrated with historical and archival sources
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