Renaissance Poet Discovered In Notre-Dame?

Archaeologists may have identified the remains of Joachim du Bellay, French poet and writer

In April 2019 the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris went up in flames. The damage and destruction to the building is well known by now, but amid the wreckage there have been interesting discoveries. Churches are often centuries-long repositories of artwork, human remains, plaques, unique architecture, furniture and the like - and in Notre-Dame two lead lined coffins were unearthed 65 feet below the nave.

In 2022, a human-shaped lead sarcophagus was uncovered during an excavation of Notre Dame, conducted after the 2019 fire. Credit: Denis Gliksman/Inrap

One set of remains were easily identified as Antoine de la Porte, a high-ranking cleric (death 1710), since the brass plate on the top of the coffin was still legible. But the second figure has remained something of a mystery, until now.

The Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives (Inrap) worked with the Toulouse University Hospital's forensic unit to examine the skeleton. One interesting conclusion was that the individual spent a lot of time riding horses. To quote an older article of my own:

The effects of riding on the human body include:

• Entheseal stress reactions on pelvis and femur

• Acetabular ovalization

• Femoroacetabular alteration

• Change to bone-shaft cross-sectional shape

• Stress-induced vertebral degeneration

• Trauma by accident

What we’re mostly looking at here are identifiable changes to the bones around the pelvis, in particular the acetabulum, which is the cup-shaped socket structure of the pelvis which connects to the head of the femur. Stress to this joint can cause a number of things, the most prominent in the literature being acetabular ovalization. In layman’s terms this is when the circular socket of the hip begins to elongate vertically, becoming more oval-shaped. This is a key indicator of long-term horse riding stress, so much so that many research papers rely solely or predominantly on this skeletal marker

The extensive riding stress on this skeleton led him to be dubbed ‘The Horseman’ by the archaeological team. Alongside this the individual appeared to suffer from “tuberculosis of the cervical bones”. TB only effects the bones in around 5-6% of cases, even historically. When it does it typically only spreads from the lungs to the immediate bones, such as the ribs and mid-to-lower spine. TB in the upper cervical bones is rare.

Example of TB infection and cervical vertebrae bone damage in a 12 year old boy from medieval Hungary (Spekker et al 2021)

These two unusual skeletal pathologies, intensive horse-riding and spinal TB, has led to a possible identification for the individual. Éric Crubézy, professor of biological anthropology at Toulouse 3 University and research director at the France's National Center for Scientific Research, has announced in a press release that this person is likely to be the Renaissance poet Joachim du Bellay.

“He matches all the criteria of the portrait,” stated Crubézy. “He is an accomplished horseman, suffers from both conditions mentioned in some of his poems, like in "La Complainte du déséspéré", where he describes 'this storm that blurs (his) mind,' and his family belonged to the royal court and the pope's close entourage.” 

“He rode from Paris to Rome, which is no mean feat when you have tuberculosis like he did. In fact, he almost died from it,” explained Crubézy at the press conference. 

-EuroNews 18/09/2024

There are criticisms. An unpublished isotope study apparently places the individual around Paris until he was at least ten, which would contradict the historical fact that du Bellay was born (1560) and raised in the Loire Valley, western France.

His life was spent in the tumultuous intellectual years of the flourishing French Renaissance. In 1494 France had invaded Italy during the reign of Charles VIII, as part of a ploy by Ludovico ‘il Moro’ Sforza to face down King Alfonso II of Naples. The invasion created an artery by which the new artistic and literary styles could be pumped back into France. Du Bellay helped promote the use of French as a powerful and nuanced tongue which could rival Greek and Latin. Many of his contemporaries had despaired that French was too poor to be an effective medium for the revival of antiquity and the revitalisation of a nation - du Bellay disagreed.

Many people around the world saw the disaster of Notre-Dame as a portent of doom, heralding the end of France or the West. Perhaps the French should take heart in the phoenix-like rise from the depths of the old church of a national champion - someone who devoted their life to reinvigorating France and her literature.