This Could Be the Face of Dante.

Posted by gail in Everything Else on January 13, 2007 at 11:01 am


dante

The BBC reports:


Dante died in 1321 shortly after finishing Paradise, the last book of the Divine Comedy.

His bones were moved to the northern town of Ravenna in 1509 by monks who feared they might be stolen from his home town.

The face has been modelled from measurements taken of the skull when the crypt was opened in the 1920s.

The measurements are thought to be correct but the
jawbone, which was missing from the crypt, has been engineered to fit
the skull.

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COMMENT

7 comments to "This Could Be the Face of Dante."

  1. Carl
    January 13th, 2007 at 3:36 pm

    There’s a really great book called “In the Hand of Dante” by Nick Tosches….if anyone’s a fan of Dante’s writing this will be a fascinating fictional novel to check out.

    You can read about the book here:
    http://inthehandofdante.com/

    I highly recommend it, at the very least for the very differently written but very engagingly intertwining story lines.

  2. Alex
    January 13th, 2007 at 4:19 pm

    How do they model the cartilage? Is the nose a complete guess?

  3. gail
    January 13th, 2007 at 4:40 pm

    Carl, thanks for the tip. As a former medievalist, I definitely want to check that out.

    Alex, I think the extrapolate from the little bone at the top of the nose, which would give the angle, and the surrounding bones, which would give the width and length. I’ll check it out. It’s an interesting question, especially since this is done so frequently in forensic reconstructions.

  4. gail
    January 13th, 2007 at 4:41 pm

    THEY extrapolate, that is. Also, I guess some cartilage could have survived.

  5. Carl
    January 13th, 2007 at 4:55 pm

    Gail; no problem! I read the Divine Commedia in highschool because I’d heard a few quotes from it and it really interested me, so this book seemed a natural progression and it turned out to be a really great novel.

    Hey, I’ll mail you my copy in exchange for some book you’d think I’d like. If you’re interested shoot me an email; chuber@mirus-group.com

  6. Cuprohstes
    January 14th, 2007 at 9:24 am

    That’s not Dante! That’s Tony Robinson!

  7. A Grue Not Here
    January 14th, 2007 at 10:50 am

    Cuprohstes: Now that you mention it I see the resemblance, that is bizzare.


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