The Medici family's history is rife with power struggles, intrigue and murder, but organs interred in the family tomb point to another killer — malaria, which the individual may have caught at the Medicis' hunting grounds.
The researchers found evidence of the parasite that causes malaria, and made the first observation of a parasite from that time in history that remains structurally intact.
The Medicis were an ultra-powerful, wealthy banking family that exerted great influence in Renaissance Florence, eventually becoming rulers of the Duchy of Tuscany in the 16th century.
