The Living Dead: Inside the Palermo Crypt

by Marco Lanza (Photographer), Laura Facchi

Between 1500 and 1800, the Cappuccini monks of Palermo devised a method of mummification that was so successful that, up to five hundred years later, the bodies of their dead are still astonishingly well preserved. The people they prepared for burial in the Chiesa dei Cappuccini were mostly from the higher levels of society and many are still dressed in their rich funeral clothes.

The images in this book enable us to take Palermo's history right back to the late Renaissance period, reconstructing the social and ethnic stratification of the city through the study of its dead. The accompanying text answers many questions that have intrigued archaeologists — Who were these people? What kind of lives did they lead? Why were their bodies mummified? How was it done?

Marco Lanza is a still-life and fashion photographer working for the leading European magazines. His images have been widely exhibited, both in his native Italy and elsewhere in Europe. He now lives and works in Florence, concentrating on portrait photography, still lifes and nudes. Although his work is frequently seen in videos and CD covers, this is only his second book venture — Florence Gourmande was very successful for the Italian publisher Casterman.

Laura Facchi is a freelance journalist, novelist, screenwriter and documentary film-maker. Born in Milan in 1971, her passion for narrative and reportage writing developed while she was working as an actress with an experimental theatre company; later she studied screenwriting in Milan. As an investigative journalist she has focused on social issues in Italy and elsewhere, filing reportage stories from Angola, Cambodia and Kosovo. She is aregular contributor to Il Diario della Settimana and Marie Claire.

Genres: Death, Photography, Nonfiction

144 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2001

Reviews

[Allyson · Rating 5 out of 5]

like a lot of things people did hundreds of years ago, this is one of the more interesting things. people died in this palermo community and paid to have their bodies mummified and interred (standing up, mind you) in the cavern underneath a monastery. let me just say how utterly fascinating this is. a lot of the mummies still have their original clothing, hair, nails and facial features they wore upon their deaths. It is also interesting to see the change in the clothing from one era to the next esp when looking at the photos of the children's section. some might think it a very macabre book, to some it might be but there is so much more to it. these people CHOSE to be kept like this after they died. the photos are tasteful and not too creepy (some are a little creepy) but i wonder what it must smell like down in the tunnels. Not like rotting flesh seeing that all the bodies were mummified in a long process which took years in some cases. Its an interesting look into something done by a different culture at a different time of the world.

[Carla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, albeit macabre, photography.

[Elizabeth Scheller Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

The pictures show fine detail of the bodies but not many pictures of the entire body so there is no frame of reference.