|
#1
●
12-12-2011, 02:03 AM
|
|
Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo, Sicily: Mummies and Rosalia Lombardo
The Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo, in Sicily, hold roughly 8,000 bodies, of which about 1,250 are mummified. They began in 1599, when the friars mummified one of their own, Silvestro of Gubbio, and the last burial was in 1939. The dead are arranged along corridors cut into tuff and sorted into categories: monks, priests, professionals, men, women, virgins and children. The best known of them is Rosalia Lombardo, the child called the Sleeping Beauty. She was born on December 13, 1918 and died of bronchopneumonia on December 6, 1920, a week short of her second birthday, and her father asked the embalmer Alfredo Salafia to preserve her. Salafia had made his name in 1901 restoring the body of the former prime minister Francesco Crispi, who is buried not here but in the church of San Domenico in Palermo. Salafia's formula, found later in his handwritten notes, was glycerin, formalin saturated with zinc salts, and an alcohol solution of salicylic acid, injected at a single point; the zinc is what gives the body its rigidity. Photographs sometimes appear to show Rosalia opening and closing her eyes. The curator Dario Piombino-Mascali established in 2009 that her eyelids have never been fully closed, and that the apparent movement is an effect of daylight shifting through the windows beside her through the day. After signs of decay were noticed, her coffin was placed inside a sealed glass case filled with nitrogen. |
|
#9
●
12-12-2011, 08:26 AM
|
|
Re: Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo, Sicily: Mummies and Rosalia Lombardo
The most famous in Catacombe dei Cappuccini is the one of Rosalia Lombardo, a 2 years old female child (1918 - 1920): all those who see her body say that she looks like she's sleeping. Only her face is so well preserved, though. She was embalmed by Alfredo Salafia using the same technique used to embalm the body of Francesco Crispi, a mix of Formaldehyde, Glycerol, Zinc, Alcohol, and Salicylic acid: it's a well known mix, but after recent studies it is believed that the secret is in their dosage. Great post |