Criminal process record Winckelmann (Triest, 1768). Comments on the criminal process dealing with the murder of Johann Joachim Winckelmann from the forensic historical and legal medicine viewpoint

Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German historian of ancient art and archaeologist, was born on 9 December 1717 in Stendal, a town in Saxony-Anhalt. At the age of 50 he was murdered on 8 June 1768 in a Trieste hotel. The voluminous original record of the criminal proceedings against his murderer, Francesco Arcangeli, was presumed lost for about 150 years. A new edition in the wording of the original text appeared in 1964. This long sought historical document gives cause for forensic-historical reflections under consideration of the autopsy protocol about Winckelmann, which is likewise a historical document. A considerable change of paradigm in comparison to current autopsy protocols is observed with regard to the evaluation of injuries and the circumstances of death.