h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

[I'm considering submitting the following to Peer Review as a complement to my other article about Joseph Haydn. I'd like to hear feedback before I do so]

The strange case of Joseph Haydn's missing skull

Joseph Haydn was a composer whose work was popular in its own right, as well as an inspiration for the likes of Mozart and Beethoven. He would likely have received a lavish funeral service when he died in 1809, but his Austrian countrymen were overwhelmed by Napoleon's invasion, so Haydn received a simple funeral and burial in a suburb of Vienna.

Once a person is buried, he or she usually stays put, but in Haydn's case this was not to be the case. Haydn had worked for the Esterhazy family, and in 1820 the Esterhazys tried to move his remains to their estate in Eisenstadt.

Ah, but this was easier said than done. Once Haydn's crypt was opened, it became evident that someone had stolen his skull.

It later turned out that Joseph Carl Rosenbaum, a close friend of Haydn, had bribed a gravedigger in order to make off with the composer's skull shortly after the burial. Rosenbaum was an advocate for phrenology, a popular “science” of the time. He believed that the shape of a person's skull was indicative of the person's talents and abilities. Inspecting Haydn's skull, he thought he saw the “seal of hearing.” This meant that the skull should not be left to decompose in the the ground, but be kept in a special mausoleum in bis yard.

Prince Esterhazy suspected Rosenbaum, but Mrs. Rosenbaum's wife hid the skull under her mattress and then lay on it, claiming that it was “that time of the month.” The Prince, still certain that Rosenbaum had the skull, attempted to buy it from him. Rosenbaum supplied a skull, but it obviously wasn't Haydn's. The prince tried again. Finally, a skull which was not Haydn's was put with the rest of Haydn's remains, which were duly transported to Eisenstadt.

Just before Rosenbaum died in 1829, he gave Haydn's skull to a friend, who likewise handed it to someone else, and so on over the rest of the 19th and early 20th Centuries. Eminent doctors and pathologists and their families kept the skull, until finally one of the recipients decided to just donate it to the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna.

Finally, in 1954, there was a ceremony at the Musikverein. The skull was put on display in a lavishly decorated urn. A procession of 100 cars drove past Haydn’s birthplace in Rohrau and thence to the church in Eisenstadt, where the skull was finally reconnected with its body. So what if the ersatz skull formerly included in the burial chamber was also there. Aren't two heads better than one?

http://inmozartsfootsteps.com/2227/the-strange-story-of-haydns-missing-skull/#:~:text=After%20the%20skull%20was%20discovered,authorities%20unsuccessfully%20searched%20Rosenbaum's%20home.&text=This%20meant%20that%20on%20December,it%20to%20their%20physician%2C%20Dr.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haydn%27s_head

http://historycollection.com/composer-josef-haydns-head-missing-145-years-now-hes-buried-extra-head/

It's mentioned in A593462 Death, Suicide and Close Shaves in the World of Classical Music. It deserves a proper Entry.

I will submit it, then.
Tjhanks, Gnomon.