“Let the muse of history be silent, and let genetics take over”.
Jean Tulard
“Fascinating”
Jean-Noël Fabiani, Professor Emeritus, Chair of the History of Medicine
Until recent years, many mysteries and rumors have surrounded Napoleon: was Napoleon’s body taken by the British and placed in Westminster Abbey? Was he poisoned with arsenic? Did he die of hereditary stomach cancer, as the English claimed, or of the hepatitis and dysentery rampant on this insalubrious island? Was Napoleon III descended from the Emperor? Did the Emperor’s physician remove Napoleon’s penis after his death on St. Helena in 1821?
To answer these and many other questions, Professor Gérard Lucotte spent twelve years working on the subject. He was commissioned by Prince Charles Napoleon (a descendant of the Emperor through the branch descended from Jérôme Bonaparte, the Emperor’s youngest brother) and Count Walewski (a descendant of Napoleon I’s natural son) to work on Napoleon’s DNA. Thanks to his genetics laboratory and electron microscope, he has achieved a gigantic feat that will astound all Napoleon enthusiasts.
Gérard Lucotte is Professor at the Paris School of Anthropology and Director of the Institute of Anthropology and Molecular Genetics. He is a specialist in ancient DNA and internationally renowned for the sequencing of the Y chromosome. He is the author of hundreds of scientific articles.
In his work and the writing of this book, he was assisted by Dr. Philippe Bornet, former lecturer at the History of Medicine Chair, with degrees in internal medicine and ophthalmology.
