ROME: The 14th century Italian poet Francesco Petrarch left hundreds of letters detailing his life and thoughts. Now scientists plan to dig up his remains to find out more about his flesh and bones.

Researchers will open the poet’s marble casket this month in Arqua Petrarca, a village in northern Italy where he died in 1374 and that was renamed for him. They will scrutinize his remains for clues on his physical appearance and health record.

“If the remains are in good condition, we will be able to find out what Petrarch looked like, his height and girth, and also his illnesses,” said Vito Terribile Wiel Marin, professor of pathological anatomy at the University of Padua.

Petrarch became famous for the hundreds of love poems he wrote to the mysterious Laura, a woman he worshipped from afar. For her, the poet perfected the sonnet form that would influence William Shakespeare and myriad others.

He was also a great classical scholar and is considered the precursor of Humanism, a philosophical current inspired by the Ancients that turned away from the Middle Ages’ focus on religion in favour of an emphasis on secular concerns.

Marin, who has taken part in other exhumations of illustrious figures including Saint Anthony of Padua, said a 19th century study of Petrarch’s bones had left dubious results that he was anxious to correct.

“They wrote that Petrarch was 1.83 metres tall, which in his age was freakishly tall. If he had really been that height he would have gone down in history as a giant,” Marin said.

He also said his team hoped to reconstruct Petrarch’s cranium, which was split into several pieces in the earlier exhumation, then have it moulded and use the mould as a basis for computerized imaging of his features.

“Medieval portraiture was very inaccurate but thanks to these modern techniques we may yet find out what Petrarch looked like,” said Marin.—Reuters