Back when the dinosaurs still ruled the earth (January, 1999), I started a thread on where Mr. I-Think-Therefore-I-am is buried. I was joined in this by other TIPSters, Sue Franz in particular, I think. So what did we uncover?
The question, it turned out, required another question to be answered first. Which part of Descartes? Because in the process of burying the poor man, digging him up, and burying him again (three times), various of his parts went missing or on tour, a shabby way to treat the great philosopher. Playing Carmen Sandiego with Descartes´ body intrigued me, both because it seemed a useful way to interest students in him, and also because, well, it was curious, wasn´t it? It also seems to have intrigued the journalist Russell Shorto, who has now provided a definitive account of the travels of Descartes after death. His 2008 book is titled, reasonably enough, "Descartes' Bones". The punny subtitle is: "A skeletal history of the conflict between faith and reason", because it uses the occasion of tracing Descartes' bones to discuss his life and times and intellectual contributions. It's an entertaining and edifying read. In less than twitter-like fashion, I summarize. Descartes died in the middle of a Swedish winter in 1650 of some mysterious disorder, which included fever and pneumonia. The strange Queen Christina is unjustly blamed for his death, because she invited him to Sweden, and insisted that he get up at 5 am to come over and tutor her in her castle. Did I mention this was in the middle of one of the coldest of Swedish winters? And that 17th century Swedish castles do not have central heating? You can see why she gets blamed. Descartes was buried outside of Stockholm. Sixteen years later (1667), he was dug up, consigned to a too-small copper coffin, and shipped off to Paris. The French ambassador took the opportunity to help himself to a bone of his right index finger, which was never seen again. 154 years later, a skull alleged to be his shows up at auction. The best guess is that the skull was stolen back in 1667 and its absence unnoticed until much, much later. In the meantime the skull travelled widely. At Paris, what was left of Descartes was stashed in the church of Ste.Genevieve-du-Mont. Time passed; the church decayed. The French Revolution arrived. In 1792, when religious institutions were under attack, the church was closed. A debate arose at the National Convention whether to transfer Descartes to the Pantheon (conveniently located just across the square from Ste. Genevieve) where French heroes reside. Some guidebooks insist that's where he is now, but they're wrong. It didn´t happen, the National Convention having other matters to distract them such as whose heads to guillotine. The heroic and driven Alexandre Lenoir set out on the noble task of saving the great works of art of France from the vandals (just see what they did to the facade of Notre Dame, for example). Because the old, falling-down church of St. Genevieve was in danger of being ransacked in the chaos of the revolution, Lenoir in 1792 mounted a rescue mission, digging Descartes up again and bringing him to his warehouse of saved treasures (the "Museum of French Monuments", now the Ecole des Beaux- Arts). Lenoir helped himself to a bit, having "one very small piece of bone plate" carved into rings which he gave to friends. Nice to know someone who can give you jewellery made out of Descartes. Napoleon arrived, then Louis XVIII. 1819 was another moving day for Descartes, this time from Lenoir´s place to the church of St. Germain-des- Pres, because the saved art objects were going back to their owner, the Catholic church. Descartes was placed in a "fresh oak coffin" and buried. This time he stayed there. Maybe. Then there's the matter of Descartes' skull. The 1821 auction where it reappeared was of the estate of the deceased Professor Anders Sparrman of Sweden. The winning bid came from a casino owner. The eminent Swedish chemist Jons Berzelius, Sparrman´s student, was shocked by the loss of the relic, tracked down the owner, and convinced him to sell the skull to Berzelius at cost. It was turned over to the Museum of Natural History (Museum of Man) in Paris, where it remains today. The skull has notes written on it by its various owners in its travels before Sparrman rescued it, and also a poem. The jaw is missing. You would think a museum would be able to hold onto to it but, no, it was washed away in the great flood of 1910, and only after a determined search retrieved from a "jumble" of other bones. Opinion seems to be that it's the real deal, but given its poorly-documented provenance, no one can be certain. SPOILER ALERT. Shorto adds a important hypothesis to this remarkable story of the perambulations of Descartes' bones. If you plan on reading the book, I suggest you read no further, and wait for Shorto to tell you about it, for maximum pleasure. But a story like this is a specialized taste, and most of you won't be reading it. So here it is for those who can't wait. There's a significant problem with this story according to Shorto. When Descartes was buried for the last time at St. Germain-des-Pres in 1819, he says the attending officials were shocked to discover how little of him remained. Lenoir also wrote in a letter that when he retrieved Descartes in 1792 he found only "some very disappointing bits of bone in very small quantity". The skull was missing. And there was no copper coffin. So where did most of Descartes go? Shorto makes a convincing case that _none_ of it is Descartes. He cites various clues that when Lenoir went back to St. Genevieve during the Revolution to rescue Descartes' bones, in the chaos of the time and misled by a plaque on the wall, he dug at the wrong place. Shorto thinks that whatever it was he brought out of the church, it wasn´t Descartes. So why can't we go back now to get him? Because the church, in poor condition for many years, no longer exists. It was razed in 1807, and the bones, if they were still there, were either destroyed by Revolutionary vandals, or were ploughed up in the construction of the street that stands in its place. Although Shorto doesn't say so, from his description and with the help of Google and street view, the street which may have obliterated Descartes' bones must be the Rue Clovis, next to the Church of St. Etienne du Mont, just across from the Pantheon. Shorto does say that this unnamed street runs into the Rue Descartes, which the Rue Clovis does, although given this history, it would be more fitting were the Rue Clovis named Descartes. I think Tom Hanks should star as Russell Shorto in a movie of this. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: [email protected] 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Subscribe to discussion list (TIPS) for the teaching of psychology at http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/tips/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
