The suggestion may well be correct that what was being peddled as "mummy"
in Europe in more recent centuries was not actually of Egyptian origin.
During the French Revolution, for example, the royal sepulchres at St Denis
were not the only Bourbon burials violated. It was long the custom to give
separate burial to the preserved hearts of the members of the Bourbon family in
the abbey of Val-de-Grace. The vault in which the hearts were kept was also
ransacked during the Revolution and the hearts put up for sale; they were
purchased by an artist who used them to prepare his oil paints, to which,
he said, the hearts imparted a "wonderful iridescence." I don't know if
any of this fellow's canvases have survived.
Which leads me to wonder: Could a good deal of the "mummy" hawked around
Europe have come from grave robbers within Europe itself?
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