Cranioklepty: Grave Robbing and the Search for GeniusThe after-death stories of Franz Joseph Haydn, Ludwig Beethoven, Swedenborg, Sir Thomas Browne and many others have never before been told in such detail and vividness. Fully illustrated with some surprising images, this is a fascinating and authoritative history of ideas carried along on the guilty pleasures of an anthology of real-after-life gothic tales. Beginning dramatically with the opening of Haydn’s grave in October 1820, cranioklepty takes us on an extraordinary history of a peculiar kind of obsession. The desire to own the skulls of the famous, for study, for sale, for public (and private) display, seems to be instinctual and irresistible in some people. The rise of phrenology at the beginning of the 19th century only fed that fascination with the belief that genius leaves its mark on the very shape of the head. |
Contents
Non Omnis Moriar | 1 |
PART ONE A Most Valuable Relic | 13 |
Mapping the Invisible | 15 |
The Music Lover | 35 |
So Was She So She Is Now | 51 |
The Golden Lyre | 66 |
All the Ferrets Were Set in Motion | 80 |
PART TWO The Alchemical Body | 87 |
A City of Corpses | 177 |
Scientific Golgothas | 188 |
A Measure of Fame | 201 |
Some Last Pathetic Quibbling | 213 |
Homo Renaissancus | 234 |
PART FOUR Repatriations | 237 |
Homecomings | 239 |
Rival Skulls | 249 |
The RiddleFilled Book of Destiny | 89 |
The New Science | 104 |
Skulduggery | 124 |
The Brainowner and His Skull | 148 |
Fragments of a Mystery | 167 |
PART THREE The Fate of His Bones | 175 |
The Ruined Bridges to the Past | 267 |
Hoaxes and Ringers | 283 |
The End of the End of the Story | 294 |
| 303 | |
| 307 | |
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Common terms and phrases
anatomists anatomy autopsy Beethoven Beethoven’s Skull Fragments began body bones brain Broca Browne’s Browne’s head Browne’s skull burial buried cast cemetery century church claimed coffin collection composer composer’s corpse craniometry cranium dead death Demuth died dissection doctor E. T. A. Hoffman Eckhart Eisenstadt Emanuel Swedenborg Esterhazy exhumation Fowlers Franz Joseph Gall Gall Gall’s genius George Gerhard von Breuning Granholm Gratiolet grave digger grave robbing hair HAPTER Haydn’s head Henschen hospital Hultkrantz human Hyrtl Ibid Johann Joseph Carl Rosenbaum Joseph Haydn Joseph Hyrtl later London man’s mind Morton Mozart museum never Norwich one’s Paul Broca phrenology Piltdown portraits prince reburial reinterment relic remains Rokitansky Roose’s Rutherford scientific seemed Seligmann Sir Thomas Browne society’s specimens Spurzheim Stephan Stephan von Breuning story Struve Sweden Swedenborg Society Swedish theft Therese Therese’s tion turned Vienna Vienna General Hospital Viennese Wagner Wåhlin Währing Williams wrote