Has tomb of French poet Joachim du Bellay been found 500 years on?

The 500-year-old tomb of French poet and critic Joachim du Bellay, who died in 1560, has been found under the floor in the cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, according to researchers.

The poet (1522-1560) was a founding member of La Pléiade (a group of seven classical poets from the 16th century), and author of works including Les Regrets. He also wrote La Pléiade’s manifesto, the Défense et illustration de la langue française, which called for French to be considered an artistic language on the same footing as Greek and Latin.

Now, a university professor believes he has identified the poet’s body, from skeletal remains found under the nave of the famous cathedral, which has been undergoing restoration work since its destruction by fire on April 15, 2019.

Read also: Notre-Dame fire: What is France doing to protect its other cathedrals? 

Anthropologist Éric Crubézy, a professor at Paul-Sabatier University (Toulouse-3), said his work has led him to believe that the remains, which were found in a lead coffin, are those of the Renaissance-era poet.

He pointed to several clues that suggest the remains belong to the poet, at a press conference organised by the Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives (national archaeological institute INRAP) in Paris on September 17.

“We knew that when Du Bellay died, his family asked for him to be buried in the Saint-Crépin chapel, but when work was carried out there in 1758, his tomb was not found,” said Mr Crubézy. 

The professor also cited:

• The age of the dead man. The bones suggest that he was around 35, the age of the poet at the time of his death.

• The conditions of the bones. Damage in a bone socket near the hips suggest someone who was a regular horse rider. We know that Du Bellay travelled between Paris and Rome on horseback between 1553 and 1557, a distance of 1,600 km in the saddle.

• Traces of inflammation at the base of the skull, suggesting chronic meningitis. This would partly explain the poet’s early death. He is known to have suffered from the disease.

Prof Crubézy also states that the poet's family had an important enough role within the cathedral to be able to request that a layman (as opposed to a member of the clergy) be buried there. 

“The uncle who brought him up (Du Bellay was an orphan), who became a cardinal, had been a canon of Notre-Dame,” said the professor. “Another uncle was bishop of Paris.”

More analysis to come

Not all archaeologists share Prof Crubézy’s assessment. 

Christophe Besnier, at INRAP, who is in charge of the cathedral excavation work, said that the man’s teeth suggest that the individual was brought up either in the Paris region or in Rhône-Alpes.

This may not align completely with the timeline of Du Bellay’s upbringing, he suggested.

“Joachim du Bellay probably spent his early years in the capital after his parents died. He did not learn poetry in Liré (Anjou, Maine-et-Loire), but rather at the Sorbonne, where Jean du Bellay was rector for a long time," said Mr Besnier.

More analysis is set to be carried out in a bid to settle the question, including on around 80 other graves that were found in the cathedral basement.

‘Many unanswered questions’

“A great many other graves have been found in the basement of Notre-Dame de Paris”, said Camille Colonna, an anthropologist specialising in funerary rituals, to Le Point. “Many questions remain unanswered.”

Dominique Garcia, President of INRAP, asked: “Who was the woman whose body was found among the male clerics, and why did some of the dead have lead coffins when others were buried in simple wooden coffins, sometimes slipped into plaster vats?”

A team of around 50 archaeologists has been examining the cathedral’s basements as part of restoration work after the fire. Just 570m2 of the 5,000m2 of Notre-Dame has been excavated so far, experts say, with more discoveries expected to come.

Read also: How an American carpenter helped repair Notre-Dame de Paris 

Some of the pieces discovered, including kitchen items and well-preserved fragments of statues, are set to be exhibited at the Musée de Cluny from November 19. The pieces are also set to be digitised for an online collection in 2025.