Longevity and causes of death of adult males in the Medici di Bicci family

Journal of Family History

Volumn 34, Issue 3, 2009, Pages 243-250

  Lippi, Donatella ^a   Cerinic, Matucci Marco ^a   Albury, W R ^b   Weisz, George M ^b,c  

^a UNIVERSITY OF FLORENCE   (Italy)

^b UNIVERSITY OF NEW ENGLAND   (Australia)

^c UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES   (Australia)

Author keywords

Disease; Early modern Italy; Lineage; Longevity; Medici; Mortality

Indexed keywords

EID: 69449090078     PISSN: 03631990     EISSN: 15525473     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0363199009337395     Document Type: Article

References (14)

1. As has been indicated, the literature on the Medici family is enormous. For overviews, see J. Cleugh, The Medici: A Tale of Fifteen Generations (New York: Dorsett Press, 1975).
2. J. R. Hale, Florence and the Medici (London: Thames and Hudson, 1980).
3. E. Micheletti, The Medici of Florence (Florence, Italy: Becocci Editore, 1980).
4. P. Strachern, The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance (London: Jonathan Cape, 2003).
5. M. Ferri and D. Lippi, I Medici, la dinastia dei misteri (Florence, Italy: Giunti Editore, 2007).
6. D. Lippi, G. Fornaciari, and G. F. Gensini, Evidence Based History of Medicine, in 40th International Congress on the History of Medicine (Budapest, Hungary: ICHM40, 2006), 633-36, http://www.ishm2006.hu/scientific/abstract.php?ID=215 (accessed March 2, 2009).
7. G. Fornaciari, Il "Progetto Medici": studio antropologico e paleopatologico dei Granduchi (2007), http://www.paleopatologia.it/articoli/aticolo.php?recordID=21 (accessed March 2, 2009).
8. C. di Domenico and D. Lippi, I Medici, una dinastia ai raggi X (Siena, Italy: Nuova Immagine, 2005).
9. D. Lippi, The Diseases of the Medici Family and the Use of Phytotherapy, Evidence Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 4, supp. 1 (2007): 9-11.
10. The male primogenito line continued for at least two more generations, through Alessandro's illegitimate son, Giulio. For further details, see the Discussion section.
11. On the prevalence of tuberculosis among urban Florentines, and especially in the primogenito branch of the Medici family, see A. G. Carmichael, The Health Status of Florentines in the Fifteenth Century, in Life and Death in Fifteenth-Century Florence, ed. M. Tetel, R. G. Witt, and R. Goffen (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1989), 28-45, esp. 29-34.
12. G. Pieraccini, La stirpe de' Medici di Cafaggiolo: saggio di ricerce sulla trasmissione ereditaria dei caratteri biologici, 3 vols. (1924-1925; repr., Florence, Italy: Nardini Editore, 1986).
13. D. Lippi and R. De Gaudio, Sepsis and Political Reason in Europe in the XVI Century, Current Anaesthesia & Critical Care 19 (2008): 325-27.
14. We have found no published information on the health of Giulio or his sons, and there is no evidence that their skeletal remains were ever studied.