by Colin Dickey
THE SKULLS OF these artists came to light during a time of enormous upheaval and stayed aboveground long enough to witness vast changes, long enough that their postmortem odysseys began to develop lives of their own. In his biography of Haydn, Karl Geiringer referred to Rosenbaum’s theft in a brief final chapter titled “An Incongruous Postlude.” But were these episodes really all that incongruous? If the hallmark of great artists is that they live on, obtaining immortality through their creative works, then might it not be fitting that their bones, too, have a share of immortality? Maybe we have two halves to our lives—the time we spend on earth and the time afterward, perhaps equally brief, during which our works outlive us. Perhaps the odd, even unfortunate odysseys of these skulls are just the physical traces of those second lives.
Perhaps the vicar of St. Peter Mancroft, F. J. Meyrick, was thinking along these lines when he entered the reinterment of Sir Thomas Browne’s skull into the church registry and wrote, in the “age” column, “317 years.”
St. Peter Mancroft’s burial book.
PHOTO TANYA MCCALLIN, COURTESY NORFOLK RECORD OFFICE AND CABINET MAGAZINE.
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INDEX OF NAMES
Beethoven, Ludwig van 49, 89–103, 129, 148–170, 216–218, 277–282, 297, 300
Berzelius, Jacques 240–242
Beyle, Henri Marie (Stendhal) 75–76
Bierce, Ambrose 119
Bonaparte, Napoleon 28–29, 45, 76–77
Bowditch, Sarah 41–42
Breuning, Gerhard von 90–92, 96, 99–103, 150–151, 154, 156–163, 165, 167–170, 177, 216–217, 242
Breuning, Stephan von 90–92, 100–103, 148, 153, 162
Broca, Paul 197–199, 201, 203–210, 213–214, 218–219, 233
Browne, Sir Thomas 16–17, 55, 140–148, 185, 188–189, 204, 214–215, 217, 233–234, 248, 255, 267–269, 272–277, 300–302
Bruce, Robert 146
Burn, Pelham 224–227, 229–230, 234
Byron, Lord 197, 205, 213, 222
Combe, George 106–109, 111, 120, 178
Cope, Edward Drinker 230–231
Corday, Charlotte 218–221
Cuvier, Georges 189–190, 196, 198–199, 240–242
Davies, Peter J. 34, 95
Dawson, Charles 270–271, 284
Demuth, Jakob 59–62, 69, 70–73, 85
Descartes, René 27–28, 213, 240–242, 262
Dotter, Anton 177
Eckhart, Leopold 6–8, 70–74, 83, 85
Ehrenborg, Anna Frederika 217–218, 291–292
Esterhazy, Paul 1–2
Esterhazy, Paul Anton 2
Esterhazy, Nicholas 2–11, 38–39, 82–85
Evans, Marian (George Eliot) 109–111
Fitch, Robert 143–144, 225–227
Flaxman, John 217, 264
Flourens, Pierre 30
Fowler, Orson and Lorenzo 111–120, 124, 190
Francis of Assisi 56
Frederick, Adolfo 3–4, 247
Gall, Franz Joseph 6–7, 17–18, 23–33, 35, 47, 81, 104, 106, 108, 120, 135, 141, 172, 182–184, 189–190, 205, 213, 221, 223, 233, 166, 274
Gassman, Maria Anna 36–37
Geary, Patrick J. 54–55
Goethe, Wolfgang von 30, 158, 222, 278–280
Goya, Francisco 15, 244–245, 297
Goyder, David George 136
Granholm, Ludvig 137–138, 140, 242, 252, 286, 289, 291–293
Gratiolet, Louis Pierre 198–199, 213, 218
Haller, Karl 172–173
Hawkins, John Isaac 137–140, 289, 291
Haydn, Joseph 1–11, 15, 37, 39–40, 46–50, 65–66, 68–78, 134, 169, 181–182, 223, 234, 242–243, 247, 272, 267–277, 296, 300–301
Hegel, G. W. F. 56
Henschen, Folke 266, 285–293
Hoffman, E. T. A. 21–22, 40, 66–67
Holm, John Didrik 106, 218, 292
Holmes, Oliver Wendell 117, 191
Hultkrantz, Johan V. 252–258, 261–266, 272, 287–288
Hyrtl, Joseph 177–182, 185, 189, 201–203, 210–212, 223, 234, 243–244
Kant, Immanuel 48, 202
Keats, John 80–81, 205
Keith, Sir Arthur 269–272, 274–276, 284–285
Leopardi, Giacomo 42
Lombroso, Cesare 219–221, 233
Lubbock, Edward 145, 204
Meredith, William 167–168
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus 33–34, 177–178, 182, 212, 223, 234, 242–244, 297
Morton, Samuel George 189–195, 197–198, 203, 233
Noble, Samuel 134–137, 139, 289, 291–292, 295
Oakley, Kenneth 283–285, 287, 289–290
Osler, Sir William 267–269
Peter, Johann Nepomuk 5–8, 47, 58–65, 70–74, 81–85, 158, 172, 181–182, 210, 277
Pezzl, Johann 18–19
Potter, George 142, 144–145, 148, 242
Rokitansky, Karl von 96–98, 152, 170–173, 178, 180–184, 186, 195, 201–203, 210, 221–222
Roose, Elizabeth 51, 57–65, 69, 72, 173
Rosenbaum, Joseph Carl 7–11, 35–51, 54, 57–65, 67–78, 81–85, 100–101, 129, 134, 150, 158, 169–170, 178, 210, 242, 277, 301
Rosenbaum, Therese Josepha (nee Gassman) 9, 11, 36–50, 58–63, 70, 81–82, 84
Rosenthal, Alma 278–280
Rosenthal, Tom 278–279, 281–282, 297
Rothmayer, Joseph 33–34, 177
Rutherford, William 249–251, 258–266, 285–286, 293
Ruysch, Frederick 41–42, 179
Schindler, Anton 93–94, 100–101, 148
Schubert, Franz 149–166
Schwinner, Joseph 5–8, 83
Sedlintzky, Count Joseph von 5, 83
Seligmann, Albert 222, 278–281
Seligmann, Romeo 157–158, 165–166, 167–168, 182, 185–187, 201, 216, 222, 278, 281
Soliman, Angelo 20–21, 40–41, 123, 185, 234
Spurzheim, Johann 22, 104–108, 111, 135, 172, 183, 23
3
Struve, Gustav 120–123
Swedenborg, Emanuel 16, 130–140, 217–218, 245–266, 272, 285–296, 300
Swift, Jonathan 146
Tandler, Julius 233, 252, 272, 276
Tildesley, Mariam 272–274
Topinard, Paul 205, 219–221, 233
Tulk, Charles 139, 217, 252, 264, 286, 288
Twain, Mark 118–119, 206
Wagner, Johann 96–98, 152, 154, 171, 216–217
Wåhlin, Johan Peter 138–139, 252, 286, 289, 291–292
Wawruch, Andreas 89–90, 93–94, 96, 165
Whitman, Walt 113–117, 205
Wilde, William 146, 184
Williams, Charles 142–143, 201, 204, 215, 225–228, 230–233, 276
William, William A. 266, 285–286, 294
Woolf, Virginia 140–141, 233–234
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many people helped with the development of this book. Thanks to Bruce Smith for his initial encouragement, to Colby Chamberlain and Sina Najafi at Cabinet Magazine, and to Mark Allen and Jason Brown at Machine Project. Thanks also to the following people who provided information, resources, translation assistance and other help: William Meredith, Patricia Stroh, Michael Reeve, Sarah Symmons, James Wilson, Erin Sullivan, Ariane Simard, Seth Sherwood, Anna Dhody, Julie Gardham, and Tia Resleure. Any errors in fact or judgment are mine, not theirs. Special thanks to the wonderful folks at Unbridled Books, in particular Fred Ramey, who nurtured this book from its beginning and without whom it never would have seen the light of day. Above all thanks to Nicole, for reasons too numerous to list.
