Centuries-old "cold case" mystery of poet buried in Notre Dame may be solved, researchers say

A centuries-old mystery surrounding a poet buried in Notre Dame in Paris could be close to being solved thanks to archaeological digs at the world-famous cathedral, researchers said on Tuesday, in what one well-known newspaper labeled an enigmatic "cold case."

The exact whereabouts of the tomb of Joachim de Bellay, a French Renaissance poet, has puzzled researchers for many years.

De Bellay, a member of a literary group known as La Pleiade, died aged 37 in 1560. According to the University of Pennsylvania Press, he was  "one of the most important poets of the Renaissance and remains a cornerstone of the French literary tradition."

De Bellay's family asked for him to be buried in Notre Dame's Saint-Crepin chapel. But when the site was renovated in 1758, no trace of his remains could be found.

His remains' precise location was shrouded in mystery until 2022 when archaeologists, sifting through the site in the aftermath of the 2019 fire that destroyed much of Notre Dame, found two tombs at the cathedral's crossing.

The scientists, working for the National Institute for Preventative Archaeology (INRAP), rapidly identified one of them as that of Antoine de La Porte, a cleric who died in the early 1700s.

But they could not immediately figure out who was buried in the other one.

Using modern methods of analysis, the researchers began to find clues as to his possibly identity. All pointed to de Bellay.

A deformation of his iliac bone told them that he did a lot of horse-riding, and INRAP noted that de Bellay was "a distinguished horseman."

De Bellay "was a skilled rider, he went from Paris to Rome on horseback," Eric Cubrezy, a doctor and archaeologist, told reporters.

In addition, an incision made by a saw in the corpse's skull, as well as a broken sternum, suggested the body had undergone an autopsy before being embalmed -- just like de Bellay.

The final, and most telling, clue was traces of a rare illness, a bone tuberculosis leading to chronic meningitis, consistent with the poet's medical history.

French daily Le Monde, describing the mystery around the missing corpse as "a cold case," said the latest find was the "most spectacular result" of the Notre Dame digs launched after the 2019 catastrophic fire.

The archaeologists themselves preferred to remain cautious.

"There are still some doubts," said Christophe Besnier, one of the scientists in charge of the excavation site.

In 2022, several tombs and a leaden sarcophagus likely dating from the 14th century were uncovered by archaeologists at Notre Dame.  

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• Notre Dame
• Cathedrale Notre Dame de Paris