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At least one Medici was plagued by a deadly strain of malaria, analysis of organ tissue from the Medici family tomb reveals...The researchers found evidence of the parasite that causes malaria, and made the first observation of a parasite from that time in history that remains structurally intact.The Medicis were an ultra-powerful, wealthy banking family that exerted great influence in Renaissance Florence, eventually becoming rulers of the Duchy of Tuscany in the 16th century.Because of their power and status, they buried their dead like monarchs in the San Lorenzo Basilica in central Florence, keeping the skeletal remains of the bodies...

The hidden gems, which depict Ferdinando I and Cosimo II de Medici, were discovered during an expansion project. ...According to the museum, an unknown person “protected” the Cosimo II artwork before it was plastered over. “Maybe this unknown savior wanted it to be preserved for the future generations,” the spokesperson said. “Obviously our researchers are already trying to figure out the story behind this.” In addition, workers also found previously hidden ant motifs adorning the walls and ceiling vault in a nearby room. The decorative work was likely carried out during the 18th century, during the reign of Pietro Leopoldo...

1478 Assassination Solved. The Humanist Did It. By FELICIA R. LEE On April 26, 1478, Lorenzo de' Medici (who escaped) and his brother Giuliano (who died) were repeatedly attacked with knives by a gang of men who invaded the Duomo cathedral in Florence during a high Mass. It was part of a plot against the powerful Medici family, de facto rulers in the Florentine republic for hundreds of years. Now a Wesleyan University scholar says he has cracked the 500-year-old case with the help of a recently discovered coded letter. For hundreds of years historians have known the plot was...

Rick Perry may be out of the race for president, but the Republican field is still brimming with Texans. One of them is Carly Fiorina, who has surged into the top tier of candidates, behind only Donald Trump and Ben Carson in recent polls. Born Cara Carleton Sneed in Austin in September 1954 to Joseph Tyree Sneed III, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and his wife, Madelon, her Texas residency was fleeting. She departed at age 2

Jonah Goldberg: Sid Blumenthal Is A ‘Malevolent, Lugubrious Political Mercenary’ 'More appropriately placed as an advisor to a Medici prince in the 14th century.' Fox News’s Jonah Goldberg had strong words about Hillary Clinton’s “old friend” Sidney Blumenthal on Tuesday, calling him a “malevolent, lugubrious political mercenary who would be more appropriately placed as an adviser to a Medici prince in the 14th century” than as a political consultant today. Blumenthal became the subject of controversy when a New York Times report discovered that he sent then-Secretary of State Clinton “unreliable” memos on the Libyan civil war. The memos were...

Galileo Galilei wasn't just an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, philosopher and heresy suspect (not to mention father of modern observational astronomy, modern physics, science, and modern science, that last one he was named by both Hawking and Einstein). He was also a friend of the Medici, the political Italian dynasty whose patronage of scientists and artists led to the Renaissance.1 Arguably, Galileo's biggest contribution to astronomy was the development of a 30x telescope, through which he made many of his subsequent observations and discoveries (most notably the phases of Venus, the discovery of the four largest satellites of Jupiter, and...

Queen Charlotte was the wife of George III and, like him, of German descent. But did she also have African ancestry? Queen Charlotte died nearly two centuries ago but is still celebrated in her namesake American city. When you drive from the airport in North Carolina, you can't miss the monumental bronze sculpture of the woman said to be Britain's first black queen, dramatically bent backwards as if blown by a jet engine. Downtown, there is another prominent sculpture of Queen Charlotte, in which she's walking with two dogs as if out for a stroll in 21st-century America. Street after...

"European bankers and the dollar holocaust" OK, this article isn't finished yet, but I was thinking like "why not publish what I've written so far beforehand, the topic is a highly important one and people here on Free Republic aren't whiners, sure they'll forgive me for saving this draft for later forum abuse and instead I could go treat my sore European intellect to some Absolut and b-movies". I'm on holiday, actually. The unfinished article (please comment!!): "Personally, I'm not born of banking stock. My forebears here in Sweden (yes, I am, again, trying to write an article in English...

Medici philosopher's mystery death is solved By Malcolm Moore, Rome Correspondent Last Updated: 2:35am GMT 07/02/2008 After 500 years, one of Renaissance Italy's most enduring murder mysteries has been solved by forensic scientists. Ever since Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, a mystical and mercurial philosopher at the court of Lorenzo de' Medici, suddenly became sick and died in 1494, it has been rumoured that foul play was involved. Scientists display the bones of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola Pico's fame has faded, but he was a celebrated figure at the Medici court. He gained notoriety when, at the age of 23, he...

Italian scientists believe they have uncovered a 400-year-old murder. Historians have long suspected that Francesco de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and his second wife Bianca Cappello did not die of malaria but were poisoned — probably by Francesco's brother, Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici, who was vying for the title.Now, forensic and toxicology experts at the University of Florence report evidence of arsenic poisoning in a new study published in the British Medical Journal.As rulers, art connoisseurs and financiers of kings, the Medici family flourished for centuries in the rough and tumble alliances of old Europe, providing four popes and...

Report: Malaria, not murder, killed Medicis BY BRYN NELSON STAFF WRITER March 9, 2005 Two brothers in the Medici dynasty of Renaissance Italy likely were not the long-rumored victims of murder, a new analysis of their centuries-old bones has concluded. Despite the tremendous wealth and power of the Florence-based family, one that produced popes and intellectuals, commissioned art by Michelangelo and protected Galileo from persecution, the two teenagers and their mother instead may have succumbed to a disease that killed without regard to fame or fortune: malaria. "We found no signs of violence at all, none at all," said Long...

Tuscan church reveals answer to mystery of Medici deaths John Hooper in Rome Thursday December 28, 2006 The Guardian (UK) Picking through centuries-old rubbish, masonry and discarded body parts beneath an abandoned Tuscan church, an Italian historian believes she has solved one of history's great crime mysteries. For more than four centuries, researchers have puzzled over the fact that Francesco I Medici, the son of the first Grand Duke, Cosimo, died within hours of his wife in October 1587. Legend had it they were poisoned by his brother and successor, a cardinal. Modern historians have tended to settle for the...

The Medici Go-Round: Sotheby's & The Signed Euphronios Proceedings resume December 5 in the trial of the dean of ancient art dealers -- Bob Hecht -- and former Getty museum antiquities curator Marion True. Will Sotheby's be called to answer questions about some of the items listed by Italian prosecutors as looted from Italy -- particularly the Euphronios pieces? The priceless Euphronios cup -- painted with the image of the fallen Trojan war hero Sarpedon -- is the earliest known work painted by the Athenian master, last seen intact publicly in New York in 1990 on the Sotheby's block as...

Medici Family Murders Debunked in Italy By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery NewsCosimo I Oct. 11, 2004 — Scientists now exhuming the remains of several members of the Medicis, the family that dominated the Florentine Renaissance, have conclusively dismissed the theory of family murders, putting to an end to more than four centuries of speculation about a series of mysterious deaths in the clan. Since 1562, when Cosimo I's sons Garcia and Giovanni died five weeks apart, it has been rumored that Garcia stabbed the other and was himself run through with a sword by his furious father. Their mother, Eleonora of...

Medici Project Turns Up Mystery Bodies By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery NewsGrand Duke Cosimo I July 21, 2004 — The project to exhume the remains of several members of the Medicis, the family that dominated the Florentine Renaissance, has taken a new turn this month as researchers discovered a secret crypt containing the mysterious bodies of seven children and an adult. The vaulted chamber was found under a stone floor behind the main altar of the Medici Chapels at Michelangelo's church of San Lorenzo in Florence. The researchers stumbled across it while searching for the final resting place of the last...

Medicis' secret crypt unearthed John Hooper in Rome Thursday July 8, 2004 The Guardian (UK) A long-rumoured secret crypt of Italy's mighty Medici family was discovered by scientists yesterday after a hunt reminiscent of an Indiana Jones movie. The vaulted chamber was found under a stone floor behind the main altar of the Medici chapels in the church of San Lorenzo in Florence. Under the gaze of sculptures by Michelangelo and his pupils, researchers lifted a stone slab to find seven steps leading down to the entrance. According to Italian media reports, the hidden crypt is between 2.1 metres (7ft)...

Italy's Medici Murder Plot Solved By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News Lorenzo dei Medici Feb. 24, 2004 — One of the most notorious crimes of the Renaissance, the attempted assassination of Florence's grandest son, Lorenzo dei Medici, has been solved more than 500 years later. Known as the Pazzi conspiracy, the plot was led by Francesco dei Pazzi, whose banking family had resented for years the Medici climb to power. The Pazzi plotted to kill Lorenzo and his brother Giuliano during a High Mass in the city's cathedral in April 1478. Wounded, Lorenzo managed to escape and barricade himself behind the...

Can dynasty detectives unearth the Medici secrets? By Bruce Johnston in Rome (Filed: 13/12/2003) The bodies of 50 members of Florence's Medici dynasty - some of whom are believed to have been poisoned - are to be exhumed for forensic tests to determine how they lived and died. The first members of the family who ruled Florence from the 15th century to 1737 will be removed from the Medici Chapels in Michelangelo's church of San Lorenzo in June. Experts say DNA testing could yield some "sensational surprises" and also provide a true family tree, showing who was related - and...