Who was François Carlo Antommarchi and why is he famous?
François Carlo Antommarchi was a Corsican-Italian physician who served as Napoleon Bonaparte's personal doctor from 1819 until Napoleon's death in 1821. He is best known for taking the plaster death mask of Napoleon on the 7th of May 1821 and for his book The Last Moments of Napoleon, in which he concluded that Napoleon died of stomach cancer.
How did Antommarchi become Napoleon's doctor at Saint Helena?
Antommarchi was appointed at the request of Napoleon's mother, Maria Letizia Ramolino, and his uncle Cardinal Joseph Fesch. He received his letter of employment on the 19th of December 1818 and replaced Dr Barry Edward O'Meara, as Napoleon had refused the British-proposed candidates Dr Alexander Baxter and Dr James Roch Verling.
What is the controversy surrounding Napoleon's death mask made by Antommarchi?
Reports suggest that Antommarchi's original plaster cast of Napoleon's face failed, and that Dr Francis Burton made a second cast that survived. Madame Bertrand, Napoleon's attendant, is said to have taken a large portion of Burton's cast and given it to Antommarchi. No definitive proof has ever settled which cast is authentic.
Where can copies of Napoleon's death mask made by Antommarchi be seen today?
Copies of the death mask are held at the Louisiana State Museum in New Orleans, the Museo Napoleónico de La Habana in Cuba, the Art Institute of Chicago, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Musée de l'Armée in Paris, and the St. Louis Mercantile Library.
What anatomical work did Antommarchi publish and who was Paolo Mascagni?
Antommarchi published a life-size anatomical atlas in Paris between 1823 and 1826, titled "Planches anatomiques du corps humain exécutées d'après les dimensions naturelles." It was based on the manuscripts and plates of Paolo Mascagni (1752-1815), described as the most celebrated anatomist of his day, under whom Antommarchi had worked as Prosector starting on the 7th of July 1813.
How did Antommarchi die and where?
Antommarchi died of yellow fever in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, on the 3rd of April 1838, at the age of 57. He had settled in Cuba while searching for his cousin Antonio Juan Benjamin Antommarchi, who had made a fortune in coffee plantations there.