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From Paris to La Plata: the story of the cast skull of Quiberon
By Franco Orlandi, UNITO
Among the many skulls and casts preserved in the anthropological collection of the Museum of La Plata, the cast skull numbered 1745 in the catalogue complied by then-director Robert Lehmann-Nitsche (1872-1938) in 1911, is of particular interest to learn more about the circulation of scientific knowledge and collections between Europe and America in the 19th century.
The story of the cast 1745 begins in France in December 1864, when a group of quarry workers began excavating on a hill in the Quiberon peninsula to extract stones. The hill of Manné-Beker-Noz, located near the village of Saint-Pierre (Morbihan, France), had been known to the local people since time immemorial for the dolmen that surmounted its crest. During the excavation of the site, the quarrymen found by chance a prehistoric tomb containing the skeletal remains of an adult male and a terracotta urn of large size (fig. 1). After being informed of the discovery, Alexandre Gressy, a member of the learned society of Morbihan, went to the site to study and collect the bones and the artifact. In this he was helped by the colleague René Galles, who drew sketches of the archeological finds.

The discovery was reported a few months later on the journal of the Societé polymathique du Morbihan by its president, the physician Gustave de Closmadeuc (1828-1918). In addition to being the chief surgeon of the Vannes hospital, Closmadeuc was also an avid archeologist. In his article he explained that the importance of the discovery consisted first of all in the good state of conservation of the Man of Quiberon, which would allow for a detailed anthropological examination. For this purpose, Closmadeuc had taken upon himself the task of putting together the different cranial fragments found in the tomb and sent the reconstructed skull to the Laboratory of Anthropology directed by Paul Broca in Paris for analysis:
«By dint of patience I managed to match and glue together most of the cranial fragments. I was thus able to reconstitute the head, which is currently in the hands of Mr. Broca and Mr. Follin […] who offered me their help. […] We will then leave it to our eminent colleagues to inform us about the anthropological value of the skull that we have entrusted to their examination» (Closmadeuc 1865, pp. 42-3).
Paul Broca (1824-1880), the most famous anthropologist of nineteenth century France, published the results of his analysis on both the «Bulletin of the Societé polymathique»and the Bulletin of the Society of Anthropology of Paris. Like Closmadeuc, Broca stressed the extraordinary significance of the archeological discovery in Quiberon. «My dear confrere», he wrote in a letter to Closmadeuc in June 1865, «The skull of Quiberon that you sent us is one of the most important remains of the Stone Age» (Broca 1865, p. 47). Most ethnologists and linguists of the time believed that, during the Stone Age, Europe had been populated by a backward and racially homogenous human group marked by the brachycephalic head shape. This group, scholars maintained, was later replaced by the more civilized Indo-Aryan people, whose skulls were dolicocephalic. The Quiberon skull, however, seemed to tell a very different story: «This skull is the most dolicocephalic of all the Stone Age skulls that have been found so far in France» Broca pointed out with surprise (fig. 2).

Since archeological evidence suggested that the Man of Quiberon had enjoyed high social status, Broca decided to compare the measurements of his skull with those of 90 upper-class nineteenth century Parisians. He concluded that the Quiberon skull «bears, in relation to the average type of the modern French, many characteristics of inferiority similar to those which are present today in certain savage, or at least highly barbaric, races». For Broca, the shape of the Quiberon skull resembled that of «negroes and Neo-caledonians». In his works, he distinguished two types of dolicocephaly: the frontal dolicocephaly, found among the «Germanic races», and the occipital dolicocephaly, typical of «African and Oceanic races». The first was characterized by a highly developed frontal region and was therefore considered an indicator of high intelligence. The second, on the other hand, was marked by a highly developed occipital region at the back of the skull, which was believed to be the seat of instinct and therefore considered an indicator of a more primitive and animal mind.
By underlining its features of inferiority and characterizing its occipital dolicocephaly as primitive and African (and thus very different from the frontal dolicocephaly found among civilized people like Indo-Aryans), the French anthropologist tried to solve the contradiction that the Quiberon skull had exposed: the presence of early dolicocephalic skulls in Stone Age France. Rather than questioning the existing theories on the racial composition of prehistoric Europe, Broca resorted to the explanation that the Man of Quiberon belonged to a human group less racially evolved than Indo-Aryans.
The skull of Quiberon remained in Paris, where it became part of the collection of the Society of Anthropology. In 1874, however, a copy of it was sent to Buenos Aires. In fact, in that year Broca exchanged a number of specimens with the Argentinian amateur collector Francisco Pascasio Moreno (1852-1919), who he had never met in person but whom he knew through a mutual acquaintance with Carlos Germàn Burmeister (1807-1892), director of the National Museum of Natural History of Buenos Aires. Among the 15 casts that Broca sent to Argentina and that later became part of the collection of the Museum of La Plata was the Quiberon skull. The original specimen remained in France, probably to allow further studies of it. On his part, Moreno sent to Broca a series of Patagonian prehistoric skulls, although we do not know which ones and in what number. As a result of this exchange, Moreno was appointed correspondent of the Society of Anthropology of Paris and his article on the prehistoric cemeteries of Patagonia was published in its journal.
In conclusion, the (cast) skull of Quiberon tells us the story of specimens and ideas that travelled from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and not just from the peripheries to the centers. It also shows how 19th century collecting practices were closely intertwined with racial theory and physical anthropology’s attempt to elaborate a racial hierarchy of the world’s population.

Selected sources and bibliography
Claude Blanckaert, De la race à l’évolution. Paul Broca et l’anthropologie française. 1850-1900, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2009.
Paul Broca, Étude anthropologique du crane de Manné-Beker-Noz, «Bulletin de la Societé polymathique du Morbihan » (1865), pp. 47-49.
Gustave Closmadeuc, Tombeau découvert au Manné-Beker-Noz, Bulletin de la Societé polymathique du Morbihan (1865), pp. 39-46.
Máximo Farro, La formación del Museo de La Plata. Coleccionistas, comerciantes, estudiosos y naturalistas viajeros a fines del siglo XIX, Rosario, Prohistoria, 2009.
Robert Lehmann-Nietsche, Catálogo de la Sección Antropológica del Museo de La Plata, Buenos Aires, Coni Hermanos, 1911, http://naturalis.fcnym.unlp.edu.ar/id/20110709008868
Chris Manias, Race, Science, and the Nation. Reconstructing the Ancient Past in Britain, France and Germany, Abingdon, Routledge, 2013.
Irina Podgorny, Margaret Lopes, El desierto en una vitrina. Museos e historia natural en la Argentina, Mexico, Limusa, 2008 (2e éd., Rosario, Prohistoria, 2014).
Nathalie Richard, Travelling skulls. About some skulls and casts kept in the storerooms of the Museum of La Plata, 2022, https://scicomove.hypotheses.org/959
Mediciones y estadísticas en los archivos de Cesare Lombroso
Por Marina Laura Sardi, Universidad Nacional de La Plata
Para descifrar si el delincuente difería del hombre cuerdo o del alienado, Cesare Lombroso se abocó a la comparación de cuerpos, rostros y cráneos. Esto fue en parte posible porque entre los años 1864 y 1876 cuando enseñaba la clínica de las enfermedades mentales en el hospital de Pavía, Italia, organizó una colección de cráneos, cerebros y máscaras faciales de las personas fallecidas. Esta colección incluía pocos criminales y, en cambio, un mayor número de enfermos mentales, además de algunos soldados que constituyeron una referencia de personas honestas para comparar a los delincuentes. Junto con estos materiales, distintos médicos realizaron libros de registros con datos biográficos (nombre, edad, lugar de origen, enfermedad, etc.), características antropométricas (estatura, peso, pilosidad, presencia de tatuajes, etc.) y las características de los órganos (cerebro, corazón, pulmones, bazo, riñones, etc.) extraídos durante la disección.
Por aquellos años, la antropología buscaba estandarizar sus prácticas. Esto consistía en la selección de las estructuras anatómicas de las que pudieran leerse ciertos indicadores, la determinación de las mediciones apropiadas y, en ocasiones, la provisión de instrumentos que permitieran medirlas. Distintos investigadores, en sus propios laboratorios se dedicaron a dicha búsqueda y tomaría todavía varios años de debates alcanzar algunos acuerdos.
El método de la antropología criminal, de la cual Lombroso fue uno de sus principales proponentes, consistía en la toma de mediciones con las que los antropólogos físicos distinguían razas. Asimismo, consistía en la observación de “anomalías craneanas”, que predominarían en los malhechores (Lombroso 1876, 1878, 1896), tales como presencia de sutura media frontal y de la fosa occipital mediana, arcos superciliares y seno frontal desarrollados, frente huidiza, cráneos pesados, huesos wormianos, asimetría craneana y plagiocefalia, entre otras. Sin embargo, Lombroso recién logró normalizar un método de observación y comparación luego de haber revisado los viejos registros y revisitado su colección de cráneos.
En los archivos del Museo de Antropología Criminal “Cesare Lombroso” (Turín, Italia) es posible detectar algunos nombres, caligrafías, trazos, anotaciones al margen, tachaduras, conteos y cálculos matemáticos mediante el cual el médico italiano construyó los indicadores y el corpus empírico que le permitieron edificar sus inferencias sobre la relación entre el cuerpo físico y la criminalidad. En la Figura 1 se observa un ejemplo de los registros elaborados en el Hospital de Pavía, numerados como 162 (máscara) y 163 (cráneo) en los que se indica: “Palazzoli Giovanni, de 40 años. Ladrón muerto en febrero 1866 […] Individuo de alta estatura 1,70 de cabello negro, bien nutrido, con notable desarrollo de la corpulencia y de los órganos genitales […] Signos de tatuajes. P.S. en el brazo derecho está representado un postillón, en el izquierdo una mujer desnuda que baila sobre cuerda […]”, cuyo dibujo se adjunta al texto. A continuación, se describe la causa de muerte (tuberculosis) y las características de algunos órganos, tales como “hipertrofia de corazón”. En este registro se pueden observar los trazos realizados en color rojo por Lombroso sobre características físicas que, según él, serían más frecuentes o más pronunciadas en los delincuentes. Otras anotaciones en azul indican el peso del cerebro, 1310 (gr), y mediciones sobre la calota, 188 (mm del diámetro anteroposterior), 146 (mm del diámetro transverso) y 15 mm del máximo espesor óseo y 5 mm del mínimo.




Por su parte, la Figura 2 muestra dos tablas realizadas por Lombroso en las últimas páginas de libro de registros de su gabinete antropológico, realizado entre los años 1864 y 1866. En la primera tabla hay datos sobre los soldados fallecidos en el Hospital de Pavía, con -de izquierda a derecha- el apellido (a veces precedido por el número asignado en el mismo libro de registros), la estatura tomada sobre el cadáver, la región de origen del soldado (solo se indicaron para Nápoles y Sicilia), pesaje en [semillas de] mijo, peso del cráneo y peso del cerebro. En la segunda tabla hay datos de siete ladrones (número, apellido, peso en mijo y peso del cráneo (Nótese que el anteúltimo caso corresponde a Palazzoli).


Durante la segunda mitad del siglo XIX la medición del cerebro era un asunto prioritario para los antropólogos, pero no había demasiado consenso sobre el modo de hacerlo; si a través de su peso, sus longitudes, de la capacidad craneana o de las dimensiones externas del cráneo (Topinard 1885). Había consenso, en cambio, en cuanto a que todas esas medidas tenían algún grado de asociación directa; es decir, personas más altas tendían a tener cráneos más grandes y, a su vez, cerebros más grandes. Medir el cerebro, cuando era posible, comportaba algunos problemas metodológicos (extracción de la sangre, de las membranas, etc.); además, de que dicho órgano era sensible a las mismas condiciones que provocaban la muerte (e.g., enfermedades y desnutrición) y a los métodos de conservación aplicados. Tomar medidas internas o externas del cráneo, en lugar del cerebro, era entonces una solución práctica.
La capacidad craneana podía medirse incorporando líquidos o sólidos (arena, plomo, semillas de mijo o mostaza, entre otros), a través del foramen magnum, de los que luego se calculaba el volumen o peso; pero era una medida de difícil acceso y la diferencia arrojada por distintos materiales, o entre distintos observadores, opacaba cualquier inferencia. En tanto, la medición de curvas, diámetros o circunferencias era sencilla y requería de pocos instrumentos y entrenamiento. Dichas mediciones, sin embargo, incorporaban también los huesos que podían ser espesos y voluminosos, lo que conducía a sobreestimar el tamaño de la cavidad.
Lombroso tomó numerosas medidas craneanas, pero decidió finalmente medir la capacidad con arena (en centímetros cúbicos). Insistía a lo largo de sus obras (Lombroso 1876, 1878 1883) en que la mayoría de los delincuentes tenían capacidades craneanas bajas (y cráneos pesados) a pesar de que -destacaba, para fortalecer sus conclusiones- la arena arrojaba valores superiores a otros elementos y de que los criminales presentaban estaturas superiores a los normales (Lombroso 1883). Es probable entonces que los pesajes de las semillas de mijo y los cráneos (Figura 2) no hayan sido más que ensayos estadísticos para evaluar diferencias en los delincuentes, diferencias entre métodos, o correspondencias entre distintos indicadores; lo que constituiría, entonces, una búsqueda para dar validez a sus conclusiones y hacerlas comparables a las de otros investigadores.
Referencias bibliográficas
Lombroso, C. 1876. L’uomo delinquente studiato in rapporto alla antropologia, alla medicina legale ed alle discipline carcerarie pel Prof. Cesare Lombroso, Ulrico Hoepli, Milano.
Lombroso, C. 1878. Cranio, in Enciclopedia medica italiana diretta per le singole specialità dai dottori Albertini [et al], F. Vallardi, Milano, vol. 2.
Lombroso, C. 1883. Capacità cranica di 121 criminali. Archivio di Psichiatria, Scienze Penali ed Antropologia Criminale per Servire allo Studio dell’Uomo Alienato e Delinquente» IV, pp. 215-219.
Lombroso, C. 1896. L’uomo delinquente studiato in rapporto alla antropologia, alla medicina legale ed alle discipline carcerarie, 5ta ed. Fratelli Bocca Editori, Torino.
Topinard, P. 1885. Éléments d’Anthropologie Générale. Adrien Delahaye et Émile Lecrosnier Éditeurs, Paris.
Measurements and statistics in Cesare Lombroso’s archives
By Marina Laura Sardi, Universidad Nacional de La Plata
In order to decipher whether the criminal differed from the sane or the alienated man, Cesare Lombroso compared bodies, faces and skulls. This was possible, in part, because between 1864 and 1876, when he taught the clinic of mental illness at the Pavia hospital, Italy, he organized a collection of skulls, brains and facial masks of deceased persons. This collection included few criminals and, instead, a larger number of mentally ill people, as well as some soldiers who constituted a reference of honest people to compare the criminals. Along with these materials, different doctors kept record books with biographical data (name, age, place of origin, illness, etc.), anthropometric characteristics (height, weight, hairiness, presence of tattoos, etc.) and the characteristics of the organs (brain, heart, lungs, spleen, kidneys, etc.) removed during dissection.
In those years, anthropology was seeking to standardize its practices. This involved the selection of anatomical structures from which certain indicators could be read, the determination of appropriate measurements and, sometimes, the provision of instruments to measure them. Different researchers, in their own laboratories, were engaged in this quest and it would take several more years of discussions to reach some consensus.
The method of criminal anthropology, of which Lombroso was one of the main proponents, consisted of taking measurements used by physical anthropologists to differentiate races. It also consisted of the observation of “cranial anomalies”, which would predominate in criminals (Lombroso 1876, 1878, 1896), such as the presence of medial frontal suture and median occipital fossa, developed superciliary arches and frontal sinus, hollow forehead, heavy skulls, wormian bones, cranial asymmetry, and plagiocephaly, among others. However, Lombroso could normalize a method of observation and comparison after he had reviewed the old records and revised his collection of skulls.
In the archives of the Museum of Criminal Anthropology “Cesare Lombroso” (Turin, Italy) it is possible to detect some names, handwritings, strokes, marginal annotations, crossings out, counts, and mathematical calculations through which the Italian doctor constructed the indicators and the empirical corpus that allowed him to build his inferences about the relationship between the physical body and criminality. Figure 1 shows an example of the records drawn up at Pavia Hospital, numbered 162 (mask) and 163 (skull), which indicate: “Palazzoli Giovanni, 40 years old. Thief who died in February 1866 […] A tall individual, 1.70 m tall, black hair, well nourished, with a notable development of corpulence and genital organs […] Signs of tattoos. P.S. on the right arm is depicted a postillion, on the left arm a naked woman dancing on a rope […]’, a drawing of which is attached to the text. This is followed by a description of the cause of death (tuberculosis) and the characteristics of certain organs, such as “hypertrophy of the heart”. In this register, one can see the traces made in red by Lombroso of physical characteristics which, according to him, would be more frequent or more pronounced in criminals. Other annotations in blue indicate the weight of the brain, 1310 (gr), and measurements on the calotte, 188 (mm of the anteroposterior diameter), 146 (mm of the transverse diameter) and 15 mm of the maximum bone thickness and 5 mm of the minimum.




Figure 2 shows two tables made by Lombroso in the last pages of the record book of his anthropological cabinet, made between 1864 and 1866. In the first table, there are data taken on the soldiers who died in the Pavia Hospital, including – from left to right – the surname (sometimes preceded by the number assigned in the same record book), the height taken on the corpse, the region of origin of the soldier (only indicated for Naples and Sicily), weight in [seeds of] millet, the weight of the skull and the weight of the brain. In the second table, there are data for seven thieves (number, surname, weight in millet, and weight of the skull (note that the last but one case corresponds to Palazzoli).


During the second half of the 19th century, the measurement of the brain was a priority issue for anthropologists, but there was little consensus on how to do this; whether through weight, lengths, cranial capacity, or the external dimensions of the skull (Topinard 1885). There was consensus, however, that all these measures had some degree of direct association; that is, taller people tended to have larger skulls and, in turn, larger brains. Measuring the brain, where possible, entailed some methodological problems (removal of blood, membranes, etc.); in addition, the brain was sensitive to the same conditions that caused death (e.g., disease and malnutrition) and to the preservation methods applied. Taking internal or external measurements of the skull, rather than the brain, was then a practical solution.
Cranial capacity could be measured by incorporating liquids or solids (sand, lead, millet, or mustard seeds, among others) through the foramen magnum, from which the volume or weight was then calculated; but it was difficult to get direct access to the cavity and the differences yielded using different materials or between different observers obscured any inference. Meanwhile, the measurement of curves, diameters, or circumferences was simple and required few instruments and training. Such measurements, however, also incorporated bones, which could be thick and bulky, leading to an overestimation of the size of the cavity.
Lombroso took numerous cranial measurements but finally decided to measure capacity with sand (in cubic centimeters). He insisted throughout his works (Lombroso 1876, 1878 1883) that most criminals had low cranial capacities (and heavy skulls) despite the fact that – to strengthen his conclusions – sand yielded higher values than other elements, and that criminals had larger than normal statures (Lombroso 1883). It is likely, then, that the weighing of millet seeds and skulls (Figure 2) were nothing more than statistical tests to evaluate differences in criminals, differences between methods, or correspondences between different indicators; which would constitute, thus, a quest to validate his conclusions and make them comparable to those of other researchers.
Bibliographic references
Lombroso, C. 1876. L’uomo delinquente studiato in rapporto alla antropologia, alla medicina legale ed alle discipline carcerarie pel Prof. Cesare Lombroso, Ulrico Hoepli, Milano.
Lombroso, C. 1878. Cranio, in Enciclopedia medica italiana diretta per le singole specialità dai dottori Albertini [et al], F. Vallardi, Milano, vol. 2.
Lombroso, C. 1883. Capacità cranica di 121 criminali. Archivio di Psichiatria, Scienze Penali ed Antropologia Criminale per Servire allo Studio dell’Uomo Alienato e Delinquente» IV, pp. 215-219.
Lombroso, C. 1896. L’uomo delinquente studiato in rapporto alla antropologia, alla medicina legale ed alle discipline carcerarie, 5ta ed. Fratelli Bocca Editori, Torino.
Topinard, P. 1885. Éléments d’Anthropologie Générale. Adrien Delahaye et Émile Lecrosnier Éditeurs, Paris.
The reception of Cesare Lombroso’s theories in France: the case of Le Mans’ learned society
By Franco Orlandi, University of Turin
In 1876 Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909), a professor of Forensic Medicine and Public Hygiene at the University of Turin and widely regarded as one of the founding fathers of modern criminology, published the first edition of The Criminal Man, one of the most famous criminological treatises ever written. In his book, Lombroso claimed that criminals were a subspecies of the human race and that they exhibited distinct physical and mental features than law-abiding individuals, such as unusual shapes of the skull, the presence of tattoos and a lack of moral sense. According to Lombroso, criminal behavior was not the result of a free will, but of a biological predisposition. Criminals were basically “throwbacks” to an earlier stage of human evolution, modern primitive men unable to control their violent and immoral instincts. The theory of the “born criminal” travelled all over the world and had an enormous influence on nineteenth century European culture, even though it had no scientific basis. This does not mean, however, that Lombroso did not encounter resistance to his ideas.

This was particularly true in France, where Lombroso’s theories were rejected by the two leading representatives of the French School of criminology: Gabriel Tarde (1843-1904), magistrate and director of the Justice Ministry’s statistical service in Paris, and Alexander Lacassagne (1843-1924), professor of Forensic Medicine at the University of Lyons. Unlike Lombroso, both scholars explained crime in sociological rather than biological terms. Tarde denied the existence of a “born criminal” marked by a cluster of physical anomalies and maintained that the similarities between offenders derived from their belonging to the same professional group. In Tarde’s view, criminality was a learned behavior that resulted primarily from the interaction with disadvantaged social environments rather than the product of a biological predisposition. Similarly, Lacassagne dismissed Lombroso’s atavistic explanation of crime and stressed the importance of poor living conditions in the etiology of crime. ‘The social milieu – he wrote – is the culture medium of crime; the microbe is the criminal, an element which only becomes active when it finds the medium to make it ferment’ (Lacassagne quoted from Renneville 2014).
While the reception of Lombroso’s theories in France has been the subject of numerous studies in recent years, the way in which they were received by less known actors and in more peripheral contexts is still worth investigation. One interesting case study in this regard is represented by the learned society of Le Mans. Founded in 1761 by a royal decree of Louis XV, the Society of Agriculture, Sciences, and Arts of Sarthe is the oldest learned society in the Sarthe region. In 1840 it launched its own journal, which continues to be published to the present day. An analysis of all the volumes of the Bulletin published from 1840 to 1927 seems to reveal that Lombroso’s ideas did not spark much debate in the local scientific community. In fact, only one article refers to the controversial theories of the Italian scientist. The text was published in 1890 by Paul Hervé, a physician at the local hospital and a member of the Sarthe’s learned society, and reported the content of a communication he had presented a few months earlier to the Medical society of Le Mans. The article, which was entitled Essai sur la suggestion mentale (Essay on Thought Transmission), quoted the testimonies of several men of science of unquestionable credibility who had witnessed firsthand apparently inexplicable phenomena of thought transmission, mental telepathy and hypnosis, and concluded that the latter should be made the subject of serious scientific investigations. In the final bibliography, Hervé included two works written by Lombroso: the 1889 French translation of L’Homme de génie (The Man of Genius) and the 1886 second Italian edition of Studi sull’ipnotismo (Studies on Hypnotism). In addition to studying crime and criminals, Lombroso became in fact very interested in spiritualism, mediumship and hypnosis, publishing several works on the topic and even attending séances presided over by the world-famous medium Eusepia Palladino, an experience that produced a strong impression on him. After outlining the main theories that had been formulated hitherto to explain thought transmission, Hevré went on to discuss whether this phenomenon could be considered the product of a pathological condition. After all, he noted, most of the subjects involved in these experiments suffered from nervous disorders, hysteria in particular. Although he discarded this hypothesis, Hevré quoted in a footnote a passage from Lombroso’s L’Anthropologie criminelle et ses récents progrès (Criminal anthropology and its recent progress), in which the Italian criminal anthropologist had claimed that genius was often associated with pathology, especially with epilepsy and degeneration:
The fact that genius is frequently derived from parents either addicted to drink, of advanced age, or insane, certainly points to this conclusion, as also does the appearance of genius subsequently to lesions of the head. It is also indicated by frequent anomalies, especially of cranial asymmetry; the capacity of the skull being sometimes excessive, sometimes abnormally small; by the frequency of moral insanity, and of hallucinations; by sexual and intellectual precocity, and not rarely by somnambulism. To these we may add the prevalence of suicide, which is, on the other hand, very common among epileptic patients
(Lombroso 1890, pp. 110-111)

In conclusion, an analysis of the Bulletin de la Société d’ agriculture, sciences et arts de la Sarthe seems to confirm that French scientists and physicians adopted a rather hostile attitude towards Lombroso’s theories. However, the article by Paul Harvé shows that Lombroso’s publication were read and discussed not only in intellectually thriving cities like Paris and Lyons, but also in more peripheral locations like Le Mans.
Selected bibliography
Paul Hevré, “Essai sur la suggestion mentale”, Bulletin de la Société d’ agriculture, sciences et arts de la Sarthe, 24 (1889), pp. 357-424.
Cesare Lombroso, L’anthropologie criminelle et ses récent progrès, Paris, Felix Alcan, 1890.
Marc Renneville, “Exploring the History of French Criminology (1885-1939): the Case of the Archives de l’Anthropologie Criminelle”, Criminocorpus, 2014, http://journals.openedition.org/criminocorpus/2753
Francesco Paolo de Ceglia, Lorenzo Leporiere, “Becoming Eusapia: The Rise of the ‘Diva of Scientists’” Science in Context 33, 4 (2020), pp. 441–71. doi:10.1017/S026988972100020X.
Carlos S. Alvarado, Massimo Biondi, “Cesare Lombroso on Mediumship and Pathology”, History of Psychiatry 28, 2 (2017), pp. 225–241. doi:10.1177/0957154X16686904.

Scientific police: an example of the technological transfer between the two sides of the Atlantic
By Silvano Montaldo, Cesare Lombroso Museum of Criminal Anthropology, University of Turin
The circulation of the technical knowledge of the scientific police is an example of the technological transfer between the two sides of the Atlantic, and of the existing tensions in the field of positivist criminology. The important body of letters received by Juan Vucetich (La Plata, Museo Policial) from European correspondents is an eloquent demonstration of this. His personal identification system, which replaced Bertillon’s anthropometric measurements with the collection of fingerprints, was adopted by the Italian forensic police after it spread to Latin America. In this process, what was weakened was the anthropological perspective of Lombrosian criminology, with its baggage of signs of degeneration and atavism, while a new perspective of institutionalization of scientific knowledge by the state was opening up.
Collections of the “Cesare Lombroso” Museum of Criminal Anthropology
By Cristina Cilli, University of Turin, Italy
Cesare Lombroso positivism was expressed as extreme attention to statistics, the accumulation of documentary evidences, and application of the scientific method to existing disciplines or those he helped establish, with special attention to deviance: psychiatry, criminal anthropology, sociology of the genius, the madman and the criminal, (presumed) paranormal phenomena.

The Museum today houses important collections concerning the study of crime and criminals, of insanity and the insane. Lombroso collected a rich series of objects made in prison and in the insane asylum. In addition, he collected an extensive documentation of the physiognomy of criminals and the insane, inspired by a widespread European tradition.
The museum displays numerous human remains collected and studied by Lombroso and his students, including a rich collection of more than 700 skulls: murders skull “presents the maximum of criminal traits”, i.e. “narrow forehead, enormous frontal sinuses, orbits, mandible and zygomata, asymmetry of the face, of the nose, of the orbits…”. To finalize the theorem, the fossa identified on the skull of the “brigand Villella” was proof of the fact that cranial anomalies reflect cerebral anomalies and primitive biological traits. The collection of comparative anatomy tends to show the presence of the brigand Villella’s cranial anomaly in mammals evolutionarily distant from man.
Death masks: 30 wax death masks reproducing the faces of criminals who died in prison were given to Lombroso by Lorenzo Tenchini, professor of Anatomy at the University of Parma. The masks were made in the 1880s and 90s as a personal gallery of anatomical, physiognomic and anthropometric aspects typical of criminals. Other 30 death masks are in plaster.

Material evidence: for Lombroso the material evidence of crime consisted not only of “things” but also of “signs.” The material evidence tells something, or a lot, about the criminal man. Illuminating the crime scene, it demonstrates the modus operandi and motives of the criminal, also providing indications about the criminal’s full or partial liability to punishment. The Museum houses more then 350 material evidences like knifes, daggers, picklocks, blunt objects, ropes, etc…
Lombroso views tattoos as an indicator of criminality, which he would later closely relate to “atavism”: it would be this regression toward primitive biological forms that drives criminals to indelibly engrave designs, symbols and writings on their bodies. Tattoos collection is composed by drawings on paper (about 150), pieces of skins, photographs (about 100) represent one of the richest and most important collection of the second half of the 19th century.
Collection of artistic manufacturing made by insane people (outsider art or “art brut”). Lombroso was interested in the artistic expressions of mentally disabled persons: if the rather mad person preserves the appearance of genius, albeit deprived of substance, the lunatic will connect us to the substance, albeit formally inadequate substance, of genius: drawings on paper (more than 200), furniture, pipes, sculptures in wood, object in paper, clothes, etc.
The collection of more than 80 water pitchers, engraved with writing and drawings by prisoners in Turin’s “Le Nuove” Prison represents a unique collection of all the world as well as the clay sculptures. The model of the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia (USA) and 6 models of cells coming from several European prisons complete the collection concerning the places of imprisonment.
Finally the historical Archive of the Museum preserves a fund of over than 6000 photographs, about 1900 Lombroso’s professional and personal letters, documentations of his activities of research, more than 500 writings from insane people and prisoners. The majority of this documentation is digitalized.