Today, 18 July 2021, is the 378th anniversary of the death of the Flemish sculptor François Duquesnoy, who died and was buried in Livorno on 18 July 1643, and not on the 12th or the 19th, as his biographies state. Before this discovery of ours, the Treccani encyclopaedia gave the wrong date too; it later corrected its online edition (as Anna Nuti confirmed in July 2019).

We had found the burial record a few years ago. Having noticed the error in the date, repeated for centuries, we thought of proposing a memorial plaque inside the church of the Madonna, where the sculptor rests. The idea took shape in conversation with Massimo Signorini, and we decided to propose it as a joint project of the Livorno delle Nazioni association and the Accademia degli Avvalorati. Later, the Dutch-German Congregation, which historically held the burial rights at the altar of St Andrew in the church of the Madonna, also contributed.

The burial registers of the Collegiate Church of Livorno, folio 456, read:

A di d[ett]o. [18 luglio 1643] Fran[cesc]o di Girolamo Duquenoy di Bruselles di a[nni] 38 in c[ir]c[a] doppo il Sacr[ament]o d[e]lla Penit[enz]a non ricevé altri Sacr[ament]i p[er] non haver fatto saper niente al curato. Morì ad h[ore] 10 il di med[esi]mo, fu sep[olt]o nella Mad[on]na con otto et otto.

Francesco Pera had drafted the following inscription, to be placed in the church of the Madonna (“On 12 July 1643 Francesco Quesnoy, known as the Fleming, sculptor of the colossal statue of St Andrew in St Peter’s in Rome, was buried here”):

“Il di 12 luglio 1643 fu qui sepolto Francesco Quesnoy detto il Fiammingo scultore della statua colossale di S. Andrea nel San Pietro di Roma.“

in Francesco Pera, Appendice ai Ricordi e alle Biografie Livornesi, Livorno, 1877, p. 30.

Today, at last, we were able to unveil a plaque in honour of the sculptor bearing the correct information, on the wall next to the church of the Madonna, to the left of the façade, on the old building of the Letter Post Office. The text had to be adapted because of the different position from the one originally hoped for: