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Polonus Vorstius' Fiery Death
The Legend:
Sometimes between 1468-1503 -- during the reign of Queen Bona Sforza in Milan, Italy -- a knight by the name of Polonus Vorstius consumed "two ladles of strong wine," vomited fire and was then consumed by flames.
My Source's Source
The above story is from Larry Arnold's book, Ablaze!; he in turn, says the story is described in a book printed in 1654, entitled the Historiarum Anatomicarum Rariorum by Thomas H. Bartholin (Arnold uses a variation of this name, Bartholini). His quoted case is this:
| "A knight, Polonus, during the time of good queen Bona Sforza, having consumed two ladles of strong wine, vomited a flame and was thereupon totally consumed, according to a report from his parents, Mrs. and Mrs. Eberhard Vorstius. The older son of the aged father, living in Leidon, narrated an account to me." |
Arnold adds that said Queen reigned from 1468 to 1476. This, however, is incorrect. Bona of Savoy married Galeazzo Maria Sforza in 1468, which was the beginning of her status as Queen of Italy, but her reign did not end in 1476; instead, this is the year her husband was assassinated, on December 26. Queen Sforza lived on until about 1503. So, given the quote from Bartholin, this event may have occurred anytime between 1468 and at least 1503.
Bartholin's reference to his source for the story -- from "The older son of the aged father" -- is a bit confusing... he could mean that he heard the story from Vorstius' older brother, but over a hundred years had passed between the latest possible date given for the event and the publication of Bartholin's book. I will attempt to locate a copy of both Bartholin's book and the earlier report by the knight's parents.
Variations
However, I do have a different version of this event, from a 1905 study of spontaneous combustion by one John Knott. According to Knott, this case was described in a book called Lumen Novum Phosphoris Accensum, published in 1717 by a man named Cohausen (I will track down a copy of this source as well). The case is quoted thus:
| "A Polish gentleman, in the time of the Queen Bona Sforza, having drank two dishes of a liquor called brandy wine, vomited flames and was burnt by them." |
As you can see, the two main differences are that the victim is not described as a knight, and the description of the damage is not as severe. The details of the report are too close in actual phrasing to Bartholin's report for them to be of different events; so I am curious as to what Cohausen's original source for the story was. I'll update this account as I find the earlier books.
Sources:
- Ablaze!, Larry E. Arnold, 1995 M. Evans and Company, Inc: New York, pg. 19.
- The Devotion of the Duchess: A Study of the Illuminated Manuscripts of Bona of Savoy, Duchess of Milan 1468-1503, Edith Kirch, book under production for the Colorado College.
- "Sforza", in Encyclopedia Americana, 1963, vol. 24, pp. 634-635.
- "Sforza", in Encyclopedia Britannica, 1982, vol. 9, pg. 96.
- "Spontaneous Combustion", by John Knott, in American Medicine, April 22, 1905, pp. 653-660... for this particular account, see pg. 657.
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