The Embalming Art in the Modern Age: The Mummies of Caroline, Letizia and Joachim-Napoleon Agar as Examples of Funerary Rites in the Napoleonic Empire
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In the early 1980s a systematic investigation was begun by G. Fornaciari and his staff of a series of mummies from central and southern Italy, and in particular of important Renaissance remains. The study of a substantial number of artificial mummies has shed light on the human embalming techniques connected with the methods and procedures described by medical and non-medical authors in the early modern period. This has made it possible to reconstruct the history of the art of mummification, from the ‘clyster’ techniques to the partial or total evisceration of the corpse, to the intravascular injection of drying and preserving liquors.
In addition to the bodies of Aragonese princes and members of the Neapolitan nobility, interred in the Basilica of San Domenico in Naples are the remains of important French personages dating to the modern age. Among the tombs arranged in two parallel rows to the right of the balcony are four sarcophagi containing the bodies of the wife and three children of Jean Antoine Michel Agar, who served as the Minister of Finance of the Kingdom of Naples from 1809 to 1815. The type of wrapping used for the corpses of the children presents strong analogies to those of ancient Egyptian mummies.
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1
Gino Fornaciari, “The mummies of the Abbey of Saint Domenico Maggiore in Naples: A preliminary report,” Archivio per l’Antropologia e l’Etnologia, 1985, 115: 215-226.
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Christopher Daniell, Funeral and Burial in Medieval England, 1066-1550 (London: New York, Routledge, 1997); Ralph E. Giesey, Le roi ne meurt jamais: Les obsèques royales dans la France de la Renaissance (Paris: Flammarion, 1987); Ernst Hartwig Kantorowicz, The King’s Two Bodies: A Study in Mediaeval Political Theology (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957).
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Filippo Cintolesi, L’imbalsamazione e le scoperte di Girolamo Segato e Paolo Gorini (Florence: Tipografia Fioretti, 1873).
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Étienne Pariset, “Quelques vues sur les embaumemens des Anciens,” Revue médicale française et étrangère, 1827, 2, 1: 409-415; Jean Nicolas Gannal, Histoire des embaumemens et de la préparation des pièces d'anatomie normale …, suivie de procédés nouveaux (Paris: l'auteur, 1841).
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Jacob Berzelius, Traité de Chimie (Paris: Firmin Didot Frères; Baillière, 1833), vol. VII, p. 689.
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The Embalming Art in the Modern Age: The Mummies of Caroline, Letizia and Joachim-Napoleon Agar as Examples of Funerary Rites in the Napoleonic Empire
In: NunciusSearch for other papers by Silvia Marinozzi in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
In the early 1980s a systematic investigation was begun by G. Fornaciari and his staff of a series of mummies from central and southern Italy, and in particular of important Renaissance remains. The study of a substantial number of artificial mummies has shed light on the human embalming techniques connected with the methods and procedures described by medical and non-medical authors in the early modern period. This has made it possible to reconstruct the history of the art of mummification, from the ‘clyster’ techniques to the partial or total evisceration of the corpse, to the intravascular injection of drying and preserving liquors.
In addition to the bodies of Aragonese princes and members of the Neapolitan nobility, interred in the Basilica of San Domenico in Naples are the remains of important French personages dating to the modern age. Among the tombs arranged in two parallel rows to the right of the balcony are four sarcophagi containing the bodies of the wife and three children of Jean Antoine Michel Agar, who served as the Minister of Finance of the Kingdom of Naples from 1809 to 1815. The type of wrapping used for the corpses of the children presents strong analogies to those of ancient Egyptian mummies.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 928 | 118 | 12 |
| Full Text Views | 135 | 3 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 67 | 7 | 0 |
