[Secrets of the Medici--history of medicine results of an interdisciplinary project].
The Medici ruled Florence during the golden centuries of the Renaissance and all of them are buried in the Cappelle Medicee (Florence). In 2004 started the Medici Project, a paleopathological and historico-medical research, based on the exhumation and the study of their corpses of the Medici, in order to reconstruct their diseases, their causes of death, their daily life, comparing the paleopathological results with the literary and iconographical tradition. The historical and paleopathological study includes the identification of all the stigmata which have left a sign on these remains: the research involves a number of specialistic approaches, from macroscopic study to palaeonutrition and molecular biology. The first step, however, regards the literary and iconographical study: starting from the examination of these sources it was possible to reconstruct the history of the archeological situation, which was upset by other exhumations, which took place in the past, and by the flood of the Arno river (1966). Thanks to the combination of these different approaches, it was possible to confirm the poisoning of Francesco I and his second wife Bianca Cappello and the murder of Giovanni dalle Bande Nere.
Lippi
Donatella
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Dipartimento di Anatomia, Istologia e Medicina Legale, Policlinico Careggi, Viale Morgagni, 85 50134 Firenze.
D002423:Cause of Death; D004194:Disease / Q000266:history*; D005197:Famous Persons; D049668:History, 15th Century; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049691:History, Medieval; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D010164:Paleopathology