The fate of Galileo's fingers, tooth and vertebra removed at the 1737 exhumation

When Galileo's body was exhumed in 1737, 95 years after his death, three fingers, a tooth and one vertebra were removed from the coffin. The vertebra is kept at the University of Padua, where Galileo taught, but the fingers and the tooth vanished for almost a century from the family that had kept them for many years. The fingers resurfaced only in 2009; they were put up for auction and could be identified only with the participation of the family and after the study of a great many documents. Galileo himself is buried in the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, while his fingers and tooth, much like venerated relics, are now in the Galileo Museum of science and technology in Florence. The vessel in the wooden frame holds the middle finger.

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The fate of Galileo's fingers, tooth and vertebra removed at the 1737 exhumation

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

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