Alessandro Manzoni died on 22 May 1873 at the age of 88. On the morning of 6 January 1873, on his way to Mass in the Milanese church of San Fedele, he fell and hit his head on the church steps. From the newspaper accounts of the day, it appears that this apparently banal accident was fatal for the old writer. It seems likely that his death was caused by a chronic subdural hematoma.