Rosalia Lombardo

Rosalia Lombardo (born December 13, 1918 in Palermo , Italy ; † December 6, 1920 ibid) was an Italian child whose mummy is in the vault of the Capuchin convent in Palermo.

Rosalia was the daughter of General Mario Lombardo and died of Spanish flu a week before her second birthday , apparently of pneumonia caused by it.

The microclimate in the Capuchin Crypt ensures that corpses are exceptionally well preserved. The burials in the Palermitan Capuchin Crypt were officially closed in 1881; the reburial of the little Rosalia is one of the few exceptional cases.

In addition, General Lombardo commissioned the chemist Alfredo Salafia to save the body of his deceased daughter from decay. The long-unknown method of conservation has produced one of the best-preserved mummies in the world. Even the finest hairs can still be seen today. However, only the head can be seen; the rest of the body is hidden under some kind of oilcloth. For decades it has been suggested that Salafia injected a nitrate / nitrite mixture into the veins of the dead child and filled the cavities with wax to preserve the rounded shapes of the face. According to reports by researchers in March 2009, however, part glycerin , part formaldehyde enriched with zinc sulfate and chlorides , and a third part alcohol solution with salicylic acid for preservation. This information was discovered in Salafia's estate in a manuscript entitled Nuovo metodo speciale per la conservazione del cadavere umano intero allo stato permanentemente fresco .

Coffin of Rosalia Lombardos in March 2011
New glass coffin Rosalia Lombardos in May 2012

Web links

Commons : Rosalia Lombardo - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Researchers solve puzzles of the flawless mummy

Individual evidence

↑ Dario Piombino-Mascali, Arthur C. Aufderheide, Melissa Johnson-Williams, Albert R. Zink: The Salafia method rediscovered . In: Virchow's archive . Vol. 454, No. 3, March 2009, pp. 355-357. doi : 10.1007 / s00428-009-0738-6 . PMID 19205728 .

personal data
SURNAME	Lombardo, Rosalia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Italian mummified child
DATE OF BIRTH	December 13, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH	Palermo , Italy
DATE OF DEATH	December 6, 1920
Place of death	Palermo , Italy

[pmid19205728-1] Dario Piombino-Mascali, Arthur C. Aufderheide, Melissa Johnson-Williams, Albert R. Zink: The Salafia method rediscovered . In: Virchow's archive . Vol. 454, No. 3, March 2009, pp. 355-357. doi : 10.1007 / s00428-009-0738-6 . PMID 19205728 .