Scientists who exhumed the remains of several members of the Medici Family who dominated the Florentine Renaissance, have conclusively dismissed the theory of family murders, solving a more than 400-year-old cold case.
Malaria, not poison as long rumored, killed Francesco I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and his second wife, Bianca Cappello, according to research to be published in Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
The couple died a few hours apart in October 1587 after 11 days of agony. Their almost simultaneous deaths led to speculation that they had been murdered.
“It appears it wasn’t poison. We carried an immunologic investigation and found evidence of the protozoan parasite Plasmodium falciparum. … We are talking of the most deadly of the Plasmodium species that cause malaria,” Gino Fornaciari, professor of forensic anthropology and director of the Pathology Museum at the University of Pisa, told Discovery News.
Although the original death certificates attributed the couple’s demise to tertian malarial fever, rumors soon spread that Francesco’s brother, Cardinal Ferdinando (1549-1609), had a hand in the their deaths. It was said that Ferdinando, who was at risk of being excluded from the succession, never tolerated the presence of the new Grand Duchess at the Medici court.
The rumors were further fueled by the fact that Francesco and Bianca fell ill a couple of weeks after Ferdinando came to the villa at Poggio a Caiano, near Florence, where the couple lived.
With Francesco’s death, Ferdinando became Grand Duke — the last great Grand Duke of the Medici dynasty. The controversial death of his brother remained a shadow over Ferdinando’s legacy. Ferdinando should be fully exonerated, according to Fornaciari, who in 2006 questioned the results of a toxicological study that pointed to arsenic poisoning as the cause of Francesco’s death.
Florence, which has a population of some 400,000 inhabitants, lies on the banks of the River Arno, in a valley surrounded by hills. It is known for its industry and craft businesses, commercial, cultural and artistic scene. Given its central position in the Italian peninsula, it is on the main national railway lines and is connected to many major Italian an European cities.
Read more here.