In 1329 , an Italian nobleman and devout Quaker of Dante suffered a particularly horrid turn of looseness of the bowels that — it being the 14th century and all — readily killed him at the attender eld of 38 . But now , thanks to Cagrande della Scala ’s exhumed , mummified corpse and the 700 - year - former after part line up therein , we know this was n’t your normal , everyday bout of calamitous ordure . This was slaying .
The muscular warlord conquered the metropolis of Treviso before fall sick , which made the timing of his stomach germ all the suspicious ; nothing like an entire population of newfangled opposition to haste one ’s death . But while there was whispering of foul play , contemporary accountssupposedly chalk it up to“drinking from a polluted spring . ” Not so !
When archeologist from the University of Pisa perform CT scans on della Scala ’s mummified figure in 2004 and discovered feces still present in the rectum , they naturally decided to take a little sampling of their very own . The lead analysis proved 14th one C confederacy theorists ’ worst fears : He had been poison — specifically , with foxglove , a toxic plant sleep with to cause “ gastrointestinal distraint , drooling , and even seizures . ”
So now , one question remain — who poisoned della Scala ? And why ?
All this and more , next season , on Serial . [ New Historian , Discovery ]
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