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Feature Christmas 2010: History

Multidisciplinary medical identification of a French king’s head (Henri IV)

BMJ 2010; 341 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.c6805 (Published 15 December 2010) Cite this as: BMJ 2010;341:c6805

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The true head of Henri IV?

This study well describes an interesting multidisciplinary approach performed by an international team of specialists to identify a possibly important "relic" of the Modern Age, the head of Henri IV. Unfortunately, evidence of this identification seemed to be rather meagre from the very beginning, in particular from a medical point of view: the use of earrings was very common in 16th century males; the maxillary bone "lesion" looks like a cyst; the nasal nevus is not well evident; red and white hairs, moustache and beard, caused by post-mortem discolouration, are usual in mummified bodies; post-mortem baldness in very manipulated mummies, as in this case, is also very common; digital superimposition, very difficult between two individuals one with open and and the other with closed mouth, does not correspond, especially at the level of the nasal bones.

However, there is a more serious obstacle for a positive attribution of this natural mummified head to Henri IV. We have an impressive and detailed report of the exhumations of the French kings in Saint Denis: the Benedictine dom Germain Poirier and Alexandre Lenoir, responsible for historic monuments, who witnessed the exhumations of October 1793 on behalf of the Committee of Monuments, accurately described the embalmed body of Henri IV: "Le samedi 12 octobre 1793...Son corps s'est trouve' bien conserve', et les traits du visage parfaitement reconnaissables... Ce cadavre, considere' comme momie seche, avait le crane scie', et contenait a la place de la cervelle, qui en avait ete otee, de l'etoupe enduite d'une liqueur extraite d'aromates, qui repandait une odeur encore tellement forte qu'il etait presque impossible de la supporter" (1).

Therefore, on the basis of these events, attribution of the head to Henri IV should be reconsidered.

1. Boureau A. Le simple corps du roi. L'impossible sacralite' des souverains francais (XVe-XVIIIe siecle). Paris, Les Editions de Paris, 1988, p. 77-78.

Gino Fornaciari
Professor of History of Medicine
Director, Division of Paleopathology, History of Medicine and Bioethics University of Pisa, Medical School, Via Roma 57, 56126 Pisa, Italy

Competing interests: None declared

Competing interests:

21 December 2010
Gino Fornaciari
Professor
University of Pisa