In 1562, Cardinal Giovanni de Medici, a scion of the dynastic family that dominated politics and banking in Tuscany during the Renaissance, died of malaria. Twenty-five years later, his older brother, Grand Duke Francesco de Medici, succumbed to the same disease.
In a new study, Yale researchers in collaboration with paleopathologists from the University of Pisa in Italy conducted a genetic analysis of the brothers' skeletal remains in search of several Plasmodium species, the parasitic protozoa that cause malaria.
They found a novel strain of Plasmodium falciparum, the species that causes the deadliest form of human malaria, in the bones of Giovanni de Medici. The researchers also discovered molecular traces of P. falciparum and a second species, P. malariae, in the remains of Francesco de Medici.
The findings - which support an ongoing effort to track the spread and evolution of malaria in Central Italy during the Renaissance and beyond - provide insights into the genetic diversity of P. falciparum and the evolution of malaria species.
The results also offer scientific proof to dispel persistent speculation that Francesco de Medici was poisoned to death, researchers say.
