The preparation of Giuseppe Mazzini (Back to the section: The visit)

Introduction

At the Collezione Anatomica Paolo Gorini you can find the copy of the plaster cast of the face of Giuseppe Mazzini on his death bed. As for the history of its preparation, always drawing on Luzzatto's work, it would be better to spend first some words to clarify some details about the anthropology of the 19th century.

When Paolo Gorini arrived in Pisa to take care of the preservation of Giuseppe Mazzini's body, his first impression, in the Rosselli household, was definitely chaotic. The burial chamber at the number 39 of Via Maddalena was literally invaded by a noisy and touched crowd of more or less famous people. A few years later, in the wake of Gorini's tale, Carlo Dossi would write:

Preparation of Mazzini's body (from Gorini's tale). Gorini is called to Pisa by a telegram from Bertani. He finds a crowd of half mad Mazzini's supporters, each of whom is giving orders and disorders, shouting ‘do this, do that, don't mind the expense' and send, naturally, the bills to 3 or 4 of the richest of them. Mr.Lemmi spent more than 6'000 liras

(Carlo Dossi, Note azzurre, n. 2737)

An unexpected telegram

In his own biography Gorini remembered the event:

After the experiments in Milan, overcome by the efforts and afflicted by pulmonary illness, I had gone back to Lodi, in need of rest. However, arriving in the evening of march 8th, 2 days later I received a telegram from Bertani, Lemmi and Campanella, who invited me to Pisa to prepare Mazzini's body. As I said, I was in terrible shape; but I determined myself to go. I did my counts, and seeing I had enough money for all the necessary supplies for the embalment and the train, I went. Arrived in Pisa in the morning of the 12th, at the station I found Bertani and Lemmi, who immediately took me to Casa Rosselli where Mazzini's body was lying. Mazzini had gone there to spend his last days with his good friends. In casa Rosselli were gathered many of the most prominent people of the republican party. I told them that I had with me all that was needed for the embalming; both for my method that preserves forever but requires an effort of many months, and for the more renown method that preserves for a brief time but is done in few hours.

(Paolo Gorini, Autobiografia, p. 39)

Mazzini passed in the afternoon of march 10th; Agostino Bertani only got to Pisa the day after. The telegram requesting Gorini intervention, signed by Bertani, Adriano Lemmi and Francesco Campanella, arrived in Lodi on March 11th at 3.40 am:

Trad. G.Mattiazzi
Paolo Gorini Urgent
Lodi
Come immediately to Pisa to prepare Mazzini's body warn us of your departing come to 39 via Maddalena, prepaid answer

Bertani Campanella Lemmi

Few hours later the scientist was asked "how he would embalm Mazzini".

Gorini replied that he had two ways:

a quick one, that however preserved the body for a very short time; and a very long one, that instead preserved it indefinitely". "It was voted. Of Mazzini's supporters, the Nathans wanted without a doubt Mazzini to be buried. But Bertani prevailed. So Gorini got to work. The body was in a state of advanced putrefaction. It was green – it was a rotting blister. Bertani assisted at the experiment. After a night of efforts, Gorini had already lost all hope of preserving it. Then he tried another way – and the green disappeared and the rot coagulated. So Mazzini was put in a case to be transported to Genoa. During the trip the case broke and some liquid came out. Once in Genoa Gorini got back to work. He hopes for a mediocre success in two years time.

(Carlo Dossi, Note azzurre, n. 2737)

An great assignment compromised by the passage of time.

The decomposition of the remains, however, was now evidently under way and that would have compromised the entire operation. This is renown and underlined by Gorini himself also in an important autographed document.
Such document probably represents the copy of the presentation letter possibly included in the report published by the scientist regarding Mazzini's preparation. After all, in the text there are evident references to the incipit of the official report (Cfr. Paolo Gorini, La conservazione della salma di Mazzini, Tipografia Istituto Sordomuti, Genoa 1873), some parts of which had been published on "La Plebe":

Just after the second anniversary of Mazzini's death I fulfilled my promise of giving the body back to the City of Genoa, which, agreeing to the solemn vote of distinguished people, had given it to my care for its preservation. The endeavour appeared from its start full of exceptional difficulties, and if I conquered them and I managed to achieve my intent I owe it to the caring cooperation, comfort and support that I spontaneously received and was never lacking when needed. What will happen to the body I think I can deduce it from those that I prepared for my studies, even though I have never tried the experiment of keeping one closed inside a case, but always exposed to air and light.

(«La Plebe», April 5th 1874).

The piece is a spark for some considerations that only at first glance seem irrelevant. It's interesting to clarify that Gorini's anatomical preparations didn't require specific conditions of light or temperature to remain in optimal state (unlike today for their maintenance). But it's even more important to observe Agostino Bertani's intent of making Mazzini a real "incorruptible", a relic prepared by the modern miracle of science, a statue sculpted in flesh – dedicated to the tangible and physical cult of the historical and political memory of the Risorgimento. Indeed Paolo Gorini was unquestionably the best expert to realize such a project. Furthermore, the fact that the destiny of Mazzini's remains was put to vote (and that Dossi specifies the two major contenders: Sarah Nathan and Agostino Bertani), explains the political nature of the endeavour. Gorini, in turn, takes the role of a skillful craftsman striving to grant Bertani's wishes and applying his methods of preservation:

Being the question put to vote, almost unanimously it was decided to opt for my method. I could feel the weight of such an immense responsibility, though not being able or wanting to desist; just, I asked Bertani if he wanted to help me and aid me in all my work, and he accepted at once.

(Paolo Gorini, Autobiografia, p. 40)

Anyway, as Gorini immediately realized the state in which the remains were passed to him, he showed plain resistance in conducting an operation that seemed compromised right from the start; but then came to the decision of trying in any case and against any probability of success:

When they gave us the body, just little after sixty hours had passed since the death. From the smell it emanated I could tell the putrefaction must have been quite advanced. However, I didn't abandon hope and reflecting that already a similar case had occurred to me during my experiments, and that a certain expedient had helped me overcome my problems, I managed in this case too to definitely arrest the putrefaction process.

(Paolo Gorini, Autobiografia, p. 40)

Meticulous work to limit the damage

Gorini's attempt to preserve the body came definitely too late, and not only because he arrived in Pisa the day after Mazzini’s passing. It was most of all because, after an initial injection of preservatives so to make the body temporarily presentable to the public, he could only execute the proper petrifying treatment later on, when he arrived in the city of Genoa. However, it’s well known that his method required constant operations spread over six months, depending on the condition of the remains. Right from the start, this difficult mission soon became an exhausting and continual coming and going between Lodi and Genoa.

I stayed in Lodi until the 17th, and on the 18th, back in Genoa, the body was given back to me and Bertani by notary deed, so that we could continue the preparation.

(Paolo Gorini, Autobiografia, p. 40)

It was necessary to operate very meticulously and without interruption to obtain a result that, however, could have hardly satisfied Gorini. In any case,

the skin […] was getting fairer and fairer, the smell less intense, but there was still a big difference between decreasing and annulling. The fact is that signs of the dark mark were already spread on large part of body, and some odour persisted for the whole month of July, and it was only in August that I could finally say that the body was perfectly disinfected. The flesh began to gain consistency, the colour became quite white everywhere, except near the eyes, the articulations remained nevertheless mobile and there was minimal reduction of volume. Thus preserved, Mazzini's body will be able to maintain for a long period of years, in fact I tend to believe that, similar to the ancient Egyptian preparations, it will preserve for an indefinite period of time.

(Paolo Gorini, Autobiografia, pp. 40-41)