It wasn't the sex: bloodletting fatal for Raphael, study claimsRenaissance artist Raphael died aged only 37ROME - A feverish Raphael suffering from "a coronavirus-like disease" died after failing to tell his doctors he had been secretly visiting lovers on freezing cold nights, leading them to wrongly prescribe bloodletting, a new study claims. Raphael was sent off with high honours at a grand funeral at the Vatican, and his remains rest in Rome's Pantheon. "A medical mistake, and his own mistake in not faithfully recounting his history, contributed to Raphael's death," he said. "From what we know, Raphael died of a pulmonary illness very similar to the coronavirus we've seen now," he said. Despite his premature death, Raphael produced a vast ouevre of seminal work, much of it at the Vatican, whose museums include several rooms filled with his frescoes.

Source: Bangkok Post July 18, 2020 01:41 UTC