Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1897 — How Donizetti's Skull Was Stolen. [ARTICLE]

How Donizetti's Skull Was Stolen.

A French rsvlow tan that ths skull of Donizetti Is still carefully pros erred la the library it Bergamo, tbs town where the oompo#4t was-born, lived, and died, for Mvtrel years before bit death Donlsettt had shown signs of Insanity, and Jo* before the Control took place afl aotoasy was mads by (he attending physioUiis. It demonstrated the ezlstenoe of grave lesions In ths musician's broth, ths organ weighed 1,884 grammes, Whloh is about a ninth above the average. The convolutions that are supposed to govern the Imaginative and musical faculties showed high development After the operation had keen completed, one of the doctors present secretly took possession of the qpper part of the oranlal vault, placed it open his own head, and, covering it with his hat, managed to carry the strange memento away unobserved. This happened In 1848. W he Doctor kept the skull all bis life, naturally saying very little about It. After his death a nephew had It made Into a paper weight In 1874 the municipality of Bergamo, learning of these facts, Instituted an Inquiry that established their truth, and finally managed to get possession of ths relic.