Knowledge of the real extent and structure of this extraordinary collection is still incomplete and continuously expanding. Until very recently, it was believed to include only 400 human skulls of anthropological-criminological type (mentally-retarded patients, psychotics, inmates, criminals, sociopaths) (figure 1A, cranial vault of a patient from the Psychiatric Hospital of Colorno). These specimens were collected by Lorenzo Tenchini (1852-1906), a pupil from the University of Brescia, who taught human anatomy in Parma at the end of 1800. He was influenced by the phrenologic ideas of Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828) and Johann Caspar Spurzheim (1776-1832).
The prominent interest of Tenchini in phrenology is confirmed by an ancillary collection of human bones derived from pharyngeal arches (hyoid bone). Indeed, this collection was aimed at identifying anatomical analogies between the human hyoid bone of socially-dangerous people (figure 1B), and the more primitive hyoid multiosseal apparatus of mammals as predicted by the theory of atavism proposed in those years by the forensic psychiatrist, Cesare Lombroso (1).
However, recent investigations promoted by the Scientific Director of the Museum in collaboration with the Chair for History of Medicine at the University of Brescia, have revealed that these skulls correspond to an almost forbidden collection of mummified human brains (figure 2), not available for public viewing, and, possibly, dehydrated macroscopic preparations of human viscera from different body regions, including their axial and/or appendicular bones, ligaments, muscles, fasciae, nerves and vessels, the latter injected with a colored substance (mostly plaster) to distinguish arteries from veins (figure 3).
As a result of an in progress collaboration between the Scientific Director of the Museum, ENEA (Ente per le Nuove Tecnologie, Energia, Ambiente), CINECA (Consorzio Universitario per il Calcolo Automatico) and the medical students of the Course of Theory of Experimental and Clinical Anatomical Reasoning, a web hypertext is now available for 3D navigation of anatomical specimens from their surface to the interior and in rotational perspective, Hypertext, prepared by Francesco Saggese, Lorella Camino, Sergio Petronilli, Severo Zambonelli and Alessandra Guidazzoli, offers an example of this educational project for the students of the University of Parma and the public, available through virtual web navigation of the Tenchini collection.
A quite unique feature of the Tenchini collection is the possibility to reconcile some of the skulls and mummified specimens with 34 wax masks (so called moulages), reproducing morphologic features of the face of people whose bodies Tenchini used for his anatomical dissections. To each mask is associated a manuscript note describing the personal and legal history of the subject (figure 4).
All anatomical preparations of the collection are representative of the type of forensic anthropometry that flourished at the end of 1800, aimed at establishing a functional and clinical correlation between the morphology of the skull, that of the brain and the behavioural attitudes, primarily those of criminal type.
Note: click over the images to enlarge