10 Facts About Nicolas Steno

Nicolas Steno became ill at age three, suffering from an unknown disease, and grew up in isolation during his childhood.

Nicolas Steno became a member of Accademia del Cimento and had long discussions with Francesco Redi.

Nicolas Steno noted that the shark's teeth bore a striking resemblance to certain stony objects, found embedded within rock formations, that his learned contemporaries were calling glossopetrae or "tongue stones".

Nicolas Steno published his geologic studies in De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento dissertationis prodromus, or Preliminary discourse to a dissertation on a solid body naturally contained within a solid in 1669.

Nicolas Steno continued zealously the work of counter reform begun by Bernhard von Galen.

Nicolas Steno drove in an open carriage in snow and rain.

Nicolas Steno's corpse was shipped to Florence by Kerckring upon request of Cosimo III de' Medici and buried in the Basilica of San Lorenzo close to his protectors, the De' Medici family.

Nicolas Steno's corpse was transferred to a fourth-century Christian sarcophagus found in the river Arno donated by the Italian state.

Nicolas Steno's remains were placed in a lateral chapel of the church that received the name of "Capella Stenoniana".

Nicolas Steno was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1988.