Did Caravaggio die of Staphylococcus aureus sepsis?
Authors: Michel Drancourt, Rémi Barbieri, Elisabetta Cilli, Giorgio Gruppioni, Alda Bazaj, Giuseppe Cornaglia, Didier Raoult
Journal: The Lancet Infectious Diseases (2018)

Caravaggio, also known as Michelangelo Merisi (1571–1610), was a revolutionary painter who influenced many artists during his lifetime and after his death (figure). The painter had a turbulent life during which he was involved in many fights and battles. Caravaggio left Rome after he was sentenced to death, and one final fight forced him to leave Chiaia in Naples around July 9, 1610. Navigating from Naples, Caravaggio's boat stopped at Palo, a port 20 miles from Rome, where he was arrested and incarcerated. After his release, Caravaggio arrived on foot at Porto Ercole in Tuscany where he died in the local hospital, aged 39 years with signs of malignant fever and sepsis, and he was allegedly buried in the nearby cemetery.1Vinceti S Gruppioni G L'enigma Caravaggio. Ipotesi scientifiche sulla morte del pittore. Armando Editore, Rome2010Google Scholar When searching for Caravaggio's skeleton in this old cemetery, a multidisciplinary team focused on any skeleton that would correspond to a man 1·65 m tall aged between 35 and 40 years at the time of death. Nine skeletons met these criteria, of which only one was found to date back to the beginning of the 17th century according to carbon-14 testing.1Vinceti S Gruppioni G L'enigma Caravaggio. Ipotesi scientifiche sulla morte del pittore. Armando Editore, Rome2010Google Scholar Analysis of the bones of this skeleton revealed extremely high levels of lead, which was a discovery of great importance since Caravaggio was known to be careless when using lead for painting.1Vinceti S Gruppioni G L'enigma Caravaggio. Ipotesi scientifiche sulla morte del pittore. Armando Editore, Rome2010Google Scholar To confirm the hypothesis that this particular skeleton was that of Caravaggio, DNA comparison with the genetic profile of the other men named Merisi or Merisio, who were considered to belong to the same family, showed that 11 of the 17 Y chromosome microsatellite markers amplified in the ancient remains were compatible with the Merisi haplotype. At present, this haplotype is unique in the worldwide Y-STR Haplotype Reference Database, supporting with reasonable probability, despite the failed amplification of six markers due to human DNA diagenesis, the attribution of these remains to Caravaggio.1Vinceti S Gruppioni G L'enigma Caravaggio. Ipotesi scientifiche sulla morte del pittore. Armando Editore, Rome2010Google Scholar To identify an infectious cause of death, we analysed the teeth attributed to Caravaggio using the dental pulp.2Drancourt M Aboudharam G Signoli M Dutour O Raoult D Detection of 400-year-old Yersinia pestis DNA in human dental pulp: an approach to the diagnosis of ancient septicemia.Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 1998; 95: 12637-12640Crossref PubMed Scopus (284) Google Scholar Several hypotheses for Caravaggio's death were suggested, such as brucellosis, malaria, or sepsis secondary to an infected wound that Caravaggio received during his last fight in Naples. Concluding data suggested that the man whose skeleton was analysed died of Staphylococcus aureus sepsis. This hypothesis was confirmed using two methods of DNA detection: a non-specific metagenomic method3Rascovan N Huynh H Chouin G et al.Tracing back ancient oral microbiomes and oral pathogens using dental pulps from ancient teeth.NPJ Biofilms Microbiomes. 2016; 2: 6Crossref PubMed Scopus (4) Google Scholar and a specific quantitative PCR method targeting S aureus. 4Mourembou G Fenollar F Socolovschi C et al.Molecular detection of fastidious and common bacteria as well as Plasmodium spp in febrile and afebrile children in Franceville, Gabon.Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2015; 92: 926-932Crossref PubMed Scopus (15) Google Scholar Additionally, metaproteomic analysis of the teeth also revealed the presence of only one pathogen, S aureus.5Barbieri R Mekni R Levasseur A et al.Paleoproteomics of the dental pulp: the plague paradigm.PLoS One. 2017; 12: e0180552Crossref PubMed Scopus (19) Google Scholar In these conditions, we can conclude that the man whose skeleton dated back to the beginning of the 17th century and was found in Porto Ercole died of S aureus sepsis. This hypothesis was supported by the identification of an osteomyelitic bone in the skeleton. Converging elements supporting this hypothesis also showed that this death is plausible in the context of Caravaggio's life and resulted from sepsis secondary to superinfection of wounds after a fight in Naples, a few days before the onset of symptoms.1Vinceti S Gruppioni G L'enigma Caravaggio. Ipotesi scientifiche sulla morte del pittore. Armando Editore, Rome2010Google Scholar We declare no competing interests. A case of sepsis in a 17th century man from Porto Ercole – Author's replyI thank Antonio Perciaccante and colleagues for their comments on our Correspondence1 reporting on the remains of a man who died from Staphylococcus aureus sepsis, who we considered to be Caravaggio. Of course, history is always subject to multiple questions and there is always a proportion of uncertainty. Regarding Caravaggio, the conjunction of his description at arrival in Porto Ercole together with the finding of a skeleton that had his size and age, whose date of burial and carbon 14 dating corresponded to that of Caravaggio, and in whom we identified a haplotype Y-STR that is substantially more common in contemporary people with the Merisi surname, are all concordant elements. Full-Text PDF A case of sepsis in a 17th century man from Porto ErcoleWe read with interest the Correspondence by Michel Drancourt and colleagues1 concerning the identification of a case of Staphilococcus aureus sepsis in the skeletal remains of an early 17th century man exhumed at Porto Ercole (Italy). These remains have been confidently attributed by Drancourt and colleagues to Michelangelo Merisi, also known as Caravaggio. We wish to point out several inconsistencies in Caravaggio's identification, place of death, and cause of his death. Full-Text PDF