2 minute read
Rosalia Lombardo
Rosalia
Every day in the Capuchin Catacombs in Palermo, Sicily, warm sunlight caresses the cold cheek of young Rosalia Lombardo,attempting to wake her from her eternal slumber. Known as the catacombs’ sleeping beauty,Rosalia rests among the thousands of desiccated corpses that have been laid or hung or propped up in what has been called the waiting room for the dead. Appearing as if she could wake up at any moment and flutter her eyelashes or shake the dust from the yellow ribbon in her hair, Rosalia is unlike any other corpse in her midst.
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Every day, the near perfectly preserved corpse of Rosalia opens her eyes and then she shuts them. In 2009, Italian biological anthropologist, Dario PiombinoMascali, from the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman, debunked the myth of Rosalia’s eyes while studying her corpse. It turns out it’s an optical illusion, a trick of the light. At certain times of day, light from the catacomb windows makes it appear as if Rosalia’s eyes have opened. Since her preservation, Rosalia’s eyes have never been fully shut.So from certain angles, the play of light and shadow makes her eyelids look like they’ve moved and makes her eyes more visible.
BLinking corpse
Lombardo
In December of 1920, two-yearold Rosalia Lombardo died of pneumonia. Her grief-stricken father enlisted famed and self-taught taxidermist, chemist, and embalmist, Alfredo Salafia, to preserve her for posterity. Salafia was still at the forefront of modern embalming, perfecting this formaldehyde-based fluid that was a bridge between old and new embalming techniques. However, in large part due to his secrecy, by the 1920s, his methods had stopped being advertised in America and he had returned to Palermo.It was here that he was enlisted to embalm Rosalia Lombardo, preserving her in such a way that it eerily looks like she’s just dozing in her casket. Unlike the other desiccated corpses in the Palermo catacombs Rosalia’s skin looks plump and supple. Her eyes, cheeks, and nose are not sunken, and you can even see the blue of her irises under her partially-raised eyelids, practically free of decay. But how did Salafia do it?
Another secretive Embalmist
Lombardo
Until Piombino-Mascali’s research, it was a mystery. He found Salafia’s unpublished notes and papers, which contained not only his embalming procedure, but his secret embalming fluid recipe. In Salafia’s embalming fluid, it was really the glycerin and zinc that made such a difference in Rosalia’s body. Other ingredients dried her out and killed the bacteria, but the glycerin kept her from drying out too much,and the zinc salts made her body rigid, essentially petrifying her. The zinc salts are the primary reason that Rosalia’s cheeks and eyes haven’t sunken in over time. Additionally, as was Salafia’s practice, he didn’t remove any of Rosalia’s organs or body fluids. A 2009 MRI showed all of her organs still in place, and an X-ray showed her brain still intact,only 50% smaller from embalming. And that, Deathlings, is how Rosalia Lombardo made her way into the annals of iconic corpses.
