The mandible of Saint-Louis (1270 AD): Retrospective diagnosis and circumstances of death

Recent paleopathological cases have shown the usefulness of interdisciplinary odontological studies in the investigation of historical figures. A macroscopic examination of the mandible of Saint-Louis (13th c. AD), conserved in the cathedral of Notre-Dame (Paris, France) was carried out, and compared with biographical data about the life and death of the King, and contemporaneous cases of infectious/inflammatory diseases. We found post-mortem tooth loss associated with moderate signs of infectious and inflammatory diseases, which precise diagnoses are discussed facing historical chronicles and sources: main diagnosis is scurvy, potentially associated with bacterial infection. Our results support the identification of the relics, and improve the knowledge about the saint's circumstances of death related to metabolic deficiencies and infections.