Icons of Longevity – Luxdorph’s Eighteenth Century gallery of Long-livers

[thorbiorn]

Icons og Logevity – Luxdorph’s Eighteenth Century gallery of Long-livers by Lise-Lotte B. Petersen and Bernard Jeune

Bolle Willum Luxdorph (1716-1788) was a Danish lawyer, civil servant, writer and scientist. One of his interests was to collect evidence of people who had attained old age. In his time anything more than 80 years of age was well done and with the help of his many friends and connections he collected drawings or had drawings done of old people with special attention to those who had attained 100 years or more.

He had planned to write a book on the subject but he himself passed away before that, so his collection of 728 illustrations and 515 people dissipated at the auction following his passing.

Since a list existed of the many drawings that were sold an idea arose in the nineteen nineties to look for the whereabouts of all the material. This book contains the result of this effort and contains copies of more than 600 of the original 728 drawings, but unfortunately only 22 of the then 82 drawing of centenaries have survived. Of these 22 six are of women. The first chapter en the book goes into details about Luxdorph, his time, method of investigation and the reliability of his findings.Although the book contains many drawings of people from Denmark especially among the ‘younger’, there are still af number of others a small list gives an idea.

Petracz Czartan, 185 years (1539-1724) Hungary
Janos Rowin, 172 years and his wife Sara Desson. 164 years Hungary
Henry Jenkins, 169 years from Ellerton in Yorkshire, he died in 1670
Thomas Parr, 152 years, (1483-1635), buried in Westminster
Christian Jacobsen Drakensberg, 145 years, 10 month and 2 days (1626-1772), Norway
Edward Burell, 143 years (1629-) painted in 1772, England
Katherine (Fitzgerald) countess of Desmond, 140 years (died 1604) Scotland or England?
Anton Haaseck (Antonius Haasechus) 125 years (1461-1586)
Attila king of Huns (Luxdorph wrote “Attila died it is commonly stated in his 124th year.” He is kind of saying, believe it or not.)
Annibal Camoux from Marseilles, 122 years old, died 1759
Johann Ottele von Hohe, 115 years, (27th September 1542- died after 1657), Nürnberg, Germany
Anton Grolekovsky, 113 years (1672-1785) A soldier but from the drawings I gather he apparently was an educated guy, possibly of Slavic ancestry. He said his father had lived to 144 years, but the claims could not be verified as he was born ‘abroad’.
Hans Hubrig, 112 years 8 month and 27 days, died 1779. Dresden, Germany
Albertus Nisæus, 110 years old, (1447-1557), Minden, Germany
Margaret Finch Queen of Gypsies at Norwood, England 108 years old, died 1740. Of this lady there is a drawing which shows her smoking. one can find it here: _http://bp1.blogger.com/_qTDAEasFLtU/RkL9HtDTDoI/AAAAAAAADCU/ZShhiDgrizs/s1600-h/Margaret+Finch+%28Queen+of+the+Gypsies+at+Norwood%29+-+Villanova+U+-+McGarrity+Collection.jpg

They do not write the whole story in the book although the picture they have apparently contains it, but elsewhere I found this:

Margaret Finch (Queen of the Gypsies at Norwood)
"The most remarkable [modern Cleopatra] was Margaret Finch, born at Sutton, in Kent; who, after travelling the whole of England in the double capacity of gipsy and thief, finally fixed her place of residence at Norwood. [She] adopted a habit, and afterwards a constant custom, of sitting on the ground with her chin resting on her knees, which caused her sinews to become so contracted, that she could not extend herself of change her position. [..] The singularity of her figure, and the fame of her fortune-telling, drew a vast concourse of persons from the highest rank and quality to that of the lowest class in life. Norwood, and the roads leading to it; on a fine sunday, resembled the scene of a fair; and, with the greatest difficulty only, could a seat or a mug of beer be obtained, at the place called the Gipsy-house."

So the above lady was one character and among the others there are a few others where one wonders what drives the machinery behind the expression in eyes.

Let that be sufficient as we now are getting down to the ‘normal range’. The book measures about 11 by 8 inches and is printed on heavy glossy paper, price is about 50 Euro, which is not so bad, but I preferred to borrow it from the national library.

If you like to have closer look then the book is distributed by University Press of Southern Denmark, and you can find the book here _http://www.universitypress.dk/shop/icons-of-longevity-2940p.html They write (today 24th May 2011) that they give 20 % discount on online sales, but add to this handling and shipping.
It is distributed in the UK by Gazelle books, and in the United States and Canada by International Specialized Book Services _www.isbs.com ISBN 978 87 7838 741 7.

What I liked about the book was to look at the drawings, imagine living in such a time as some of these did and still make it for so long. I have tried to find a picture of the old man from Hungary, but I did not succeed.

 

[Aeneas]

What I liked about the book was to look at the drawings, imagine living in such a time as some of these did and still make it for so long. I have tried to find a picture of the old man from Hungary, but I did not succeed.

Thanks for the review. Interesting how people managed to live to a ripe old age in the days before the advent of pharmaceuticals companies, whose interest is more in the bottom line and peddling their chemical coctails than in health.

I did find a picture of the man from Hungary and a few others from this website: _http://www.demogr.mpg.de/books/odense/6/03.htm

Petracz Czartan, 185 Years.
Died in 1724. From the Temesvar Bannat in Hungary. Engraving by J.A. Schmuzer. From the book Das Merckwürdige Wienn 1727.

Janos Rowin, 172 years, and his wife Sara Desson, 164 years. From the Temesvar Bannat in Hungary. Engraving by J.A. Schmuzer. From the book Das Merckwürdige Wienn 1727. Fig. XIII. Here we are told about the couple that they were both still living in 1727, had been married for 147 years and that their youngest son was at this time 116 years old and had two great- grandchildren of 35 and 27 years.

Henry Jenkins, 169 years. Died in 1670. From Ellerton in Yorkshire. Engraving by Thomas Worlige 1752 after a painting by Walker. On the engraving is found the life of Henry Jenkins by Mrs. Anne Saville.

The old Thomas Parr, 152 years.
Died in 1635. Buried in Westminster. Engraving by C.V. Dalen.

And here a picture of him in his youth ;)

Thomas Parr, young Parr, over 80 years. Allegedly son of old Parr. Engraving by unknown engraver.

Katherine (Fitzgerald) Countess of Desmond, 140 years. Died in 1604. Second wife of Thomas 12th Earl of Desmonds. Engraving by F.G. Aliamet from Thomas Pennant 's Tour in Scotland 1769. According to F.M. O'Donoghue, and H.M. Hake, Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits, London 1908-. The picture has been falsely identified and is in reality a portrait of Rembrandt's mother.

Christian Jacobsen Drakenberg, 145 years 10 months and 2 days. Died in 1772. Engraving published in London
by J. Spilsbury in 1765.

Annibal Camoux from Marseille, 122 years. Died in 1759. Engraving by Dejean after a painting by Henry.
The engraving serves as frontispiece to the life of Annibal Camoux: Le Socrate Marseillois. Marseille 1773.

Hans Hubrig, 113 Years. Died in 1779. Engraving by Schlitterlau after Lindau. 14,9 x 9,4 (8vo) Index tabularum p. 6. The engraving serves as frontispiece to Christian Löber's Freuden Hans Hubrigs. Dresden 1778.

Anton Grolekofsky (Carolicopsky), 113 years. Died in 1785. Soldier. Engraving by Georg Fuchs.

 

[Aeneas]

After reading some more from the link I gave above, it does appear that few if any at all of the claims to super old age could be validated, but was based more on what the people themselves told etc.

This does not mean that people of such an old age has never lived, but there are just no traces of evidence left.

The conclusion in the above article was:

The true value of the Luxdorph picture gallery, however, lies not in the statistical information which it provides. As can be seen from the above examples most if not all of the centenarians and supercentenarians in the gallery have been or can be invalidated, and even a number of the persons aged less than 100 in the gallery have had their ages adjusted downwards by recent research. What makes the Luxdorph picture gallery unique is the fact that many of the pictures in this collection represent old people from the less affluent strata of society of whom no pictures would have existed but for their claim to exceptional longevity. Thus the collection constitutes a valuable contribution to the history of old age by enabling us to look at famous and less famous old people of the past, and the way in which they were represented at the time.

 

[thorbiorn]

After reading some more from the link I gave above, it does appear that few if any at all of the claims to super old age could be validated, but was based more on what the people themselves told etc.

Thank you very much for finding all the pictures, I had tried to scan some in, but your job looks much better.

In regard to the claims of old age it is reasonable to be skeptic, but sometimes I think the skepticism is a result of obstinacy. While I was in Mozambique there was an article in the largest daily newspaper, Noticias, about a woman in Southern Mozambique that had turned 134 years that is according to documents issued by the authorities at the time, the Portuguese. She had been well until shortly before the article appeared, which must have been in around 2001.

On the Wikipedia one can read a list of people who have been documented to have become very old:_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldest_people It turns out that among the known cases women generally live longer than men. The longest living woman was a French lady who became 122 years of age and the longest living man was a Dane who became 115 years of age.

Yes, 115 years, which means that the Ukrainian that became 116 does not count. Read about him here. _http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7147254.stm and here:_http://www.wumag.kiev.ua/index2.php?param=pgs20073/68 which has:

Hryhoriy Nestor’s birth certificate says that he was born on March 15 1891.

Hryhoriy Nestor was born in the village of Monastyr which at that time belonged to Poland. Old timers in Western Ukraine call the times of the late nineteenth-early twentieth century “za tsirya”, that is “of Caesar,” referring though not to the ancient Roman Julius Caesar but to the emperor Franz Joseph of Austria and Hungary. They claim that “those were golden times.”

Nestor’s recollections of his childhood are also sunny, “the best in my life — carefree, swimming in the river, hanging out with friends.”

He was only seven when his family became ill with typhus. He survived but the illness prevented him from becoming a priest as was a family tradition through several generations.

In 1940, his family moved to the Land of Lvivshchyna in Ukraine. He worked as a shepherd spending most of his time outdoors. He never learnt to write but he could read a little. At his age, he is a man of cheerful and benevolent character, he wishes everyone well, avoids any arguments, and takes everything with a pinch of salt, even his fame of the oldest man on earth.

His diet has always been very simple — milk, cheese, potatoes. In the lean years or during famines he ate anything that he could get — oats, red beet peelings, even grass. He used to drink alcohol, but always moderately. Most of his life he walked around barefoot, took swims in the river. He never married. It is to his bachelor status that he attributes his longevity, “If I’d been married, my wife would’ve chased me into grave long ago.”

And he spent a lot of time in prayer. He always said a prayer in the morning when he got up and in the evening before he went to bed. He still does it. He observed Christian feasts, fasted when it was required by the religious calendar. He always worked hard — very typical of his generation.

 

[Laura]

Is that supposed to be "Icons oF Longevity"?

 

[Aeneas]

Is that supposed to be "Icons oF Longevity"?

Yes, I am sure that is what Thorbiorn meant: Icons of Longevity

 

[thorbiorn]

Is that supposed to be "Icons oF Longevity"?

Yes, and thank you, now it has been corrected.