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Heavy Metals

The mysterious death of Francesco I de' Medici and Bianca Cappello: an arsenic murder?

BMJ 2006; 333 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.38996.682234.AE (Published 21 December 2006) Cite this as: BMJ 2006;333:1299

Rapid Response:

Re: Time of Deaths

Dear Professor Sweeney, we had already observed what You say.
It is very difficult to find a document in which Mons.Baldovinetti
states the hours of death in digital form ( 04:00).
Mons.Baldovinetti was probably used to calculate hours according
to the Canonic system wich means twelve hours beginning at
dawn and ending at sunset, and the hours where numbered as
first hour, second hour and so on.
In the description of Mons.Baldovinetti there are 3 main points :
- 4° and 5° hora di notte ( 19 october)
- Martedì mattina (20 october)
- Intervallo di circa 12 hore ( gap of about 12 hours)

Now if you have a look in the enclosure you can realise the
correspondence of the hours; you must take into consideration the
division between daytime (D) and nighttime ( N).

In a separate mail, we are going to send You the complete
explanation in Excel.

Competing interests:
None declared

Competing interests: No competing interests

09 January 2007
francesco Mari
Prof. Forensic Toxicology
Aldo E. Polettini, Donatella Lippi, Elisabetta Bertol
Florence 50134