Post by Admin on Jul 26, 2021 2:45:19 GMT
Leonardo’s grave at Amboise
In his last will and testament, Leonardo expressed the wish to be buried “inside
the church of Saint Florentin in Amboise”:342 not in the hamlet, but in the castle.
The scholar Venanzio De Pagave (1722-1803) had searched in vain in the second
half of the XVIII century for the artist-scientist’s grave in the Royal Castle, in
the church which had been violated already in the XVI century in the wars between
Catholics and Huguenots.
The error – as Arsène Houssaye (lay name Housset) will write in 1869 – was to
“have looked for it in the chapel of Saint Florentin under the castle, which was then
called Notre-Dame en Grèves and had neither a collegio nor a chapter”,343 contrary
to the wish specified in Leonardo’s will.
In an article titled “Per le ossa di Leonardo”,344 fifty-six years after Houssaye’s
finds, the historian of science Antonio Favaro (famous for his Edizione nazionale of
Galileo’s work), reconstructed the events mentioning explicitly also “Leonardo da
Vinci’s death registration” dated 12 August 1519, on the basis of which the corpse
that Leonardo da Vinci, who died in 1519, was buried, have been gathered. This was
done according to the wish of H.R.H. Luis Philippe of Orléans, count of Paris, on 1
August 1874”.
The casket was lowered into a small purpose-built tomb in the Chapel of Saint
Hubert,348 with a gravestone carrying the same inscription.
On 2 May 2019,349 for the celebration of the fifth centennial since the artistscientist’s
death, the Presidents of the Italian and French Republics jointly visited
this grave in order to pay homage to the great Leonardo.
Are the scientific analysis going to start in Vinci?
The church of Croce is gaining in its symbolic significance, not only because
Leonardo was probably baptized in it,350 but also because it should be possible
to rediscover the Da Vincis’ ancient family tomb.
Here was certainly located the tomb of the “Casa”, that is the Da Vinci clan; it
then stood “at the centre” of the building, “opposite the main door” (until 1929 more
to the left than in the present arrangement).
Referring only to direct male descendants, six of the Vincis were certainly laid
to rest in the family tomb: Domenico di Matteo (XI); the sons of Vincenzo Leonardo
(XIII) from the other branch. Two further males are found “nella compagnia”; the
young Lorenzo (XIII, 1747) “in the children’s grave”.
The burials of Leonardo’s grandfather, Antonio (IV generation), and of his uncle
Francesco (V) still need to be located: it cannot be ruled out that they are in Vinci.