Haunted self portrait

One of my first conversations when back at work after a couple of weeks away was about anatomical models, so here’s a beautiful one. Made by Clemente Susini in eighteenth century Florence, it shows the anatomy of the head and neck, and can now be seen in La Specola in Florence.

Another of Louis Auzoux’s dissectible papier-mâché mannequins, this time in the Musée d’histoire de la Médecine in Paris 🖤

Coming to Glasgow in May! www.eventbrite.com/e/then-and-n...

Our new events programme has launched! Our spring programme is incredibly varied- from vaping to 300 years of Edinburgh Medical School. 🧵👇

Cat Irving (@anatomicalcat.bsky.social) will be joined by Katie Stringer, one of the editors of The Routledge Handbook of Museums, Heritage and Death, for a discussion of the themes and ideas explored in this landmark publication. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dissecting...

In this talk, Human Remains Conservator @anatomicalcat.bsky.social explores how anatomical knowledge has influenced artistic attempts to understand and depict the physical realities of crucifixion. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lunch-time...

Anatomical models made by surgeon André-Pierre Pinson in the late eighteenth century on display in the Musée de l’Homme, Paris. Looking forward to being back in Paris next week!

On the lower floor of Michaelskapelle in Iphofen, Germany, you can find the only remaining ossuary in Lower Franconia. It was an extraordinary place to visit yesterday.

A wonderful memento mori figure at the base of a crucifix in the museum of Mainz cathedral.

Met this rather lovely skeleton on a seventeenth century tomb in Liège Cathedral today…

We made a stop in Liége today to see Guillaume Geefs’ ‘Le génie du mal’, known to the internet as Stupid Sexy Satan. It’s quite a thing to behold but in person you see some easily-missed details…

Every time I go to the Wellcome Bookshop i discover something new and delectable! This is the beauty i could not resist on my visit two weeks ago…

The beautiful ossuary of Marville in France, which has featured on the title slide of a number of my talks (and do get in touch if you’d like me to give a lecture on ossuaries!). I’m off on a road trip on Friday and looking forward to seeing a few ossuaries that I’ve never visited before.

Some of the anatomical features of the face and neck modelled in wax over bone. This was done by surgeon André-Pierre Pinson working in the late nineteenth century. He became much better known for his models than for his surgical endeavours

As always Cat Irving's talk for #GothsForBreakfast was amazing! We explored Burke and Hare (NOT Bodysnatchers), bodysnatchers and the representations of both on screen. Definitely added to my to watch (and to read) lists!

I’ll be speaking at 3pm on the subject of The Sack’em Up Men on Screen: Body Snatchers Go To The Movies (amongst a whole array of amazing speakers!). It’s online, and for a great cause

An anatomical wax model made by Joseph Towne, who spent more than 50 years making wax models for Guy’s Hospital, having been employed there by Astley Cooper in 1826. Cooper was President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and had been impressed by seeing a wax skeleton Towne had made

Lovely visit today from @anatomicalcat.bsky.social chatting all things Jeremy Bentham and human remains!

Our Macewen exhibition will be on until July 2026 so there's still plenty of time to come along and learn about this remarkable, surgical pioneer.

It was great to see the current exhibition at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow on pioneering neurosurgeon William Macewen. I’ve worked with some of the head slices that Macewen cut as part of the preparation for his Atlas of Head Sections, published in 1893.

@drlindseyfitz.bsky.social @anatomicalcat.bsky.social Would make a great sign for an independent medical practice. #Medicine #Doctors

The Totentanz - or Dance of Death - in Bleibach, Germany dates to 1723, and still has all 34 scenes presents. There are 33 figures and their encounter with an anthropomorphised Death plus a skeletal band. In this scene, Death is coming for the cardinal.

When our friend Helena died a group of us met at her flat to help tidy and take some mementos. I found this book on Ithell Colquhoun by Amy Hale and thought it fitting. Last night Amy was our honoured guest and kind enough to sign the book. Funny how these things come around

Shrove is the past tense of shrive, the act of making confession. The noun form, shrift, gives us “short shrift”; the brief, cursory confession offered to condemned prisoners and, therefore, any meagre thing. Ironically, offering short shrift in pancakes is a capital offence in Castle Pieterstein.

Some of the beautiful work of @nathalie.latour.501 spotted on a recent trip to Paris in the Librarie Alain Brieux. I’ve been a fan of Nathalie’s beautiful anatomical waxes for ages - and you might have seen them recently when it featured prominently in Guillermo del Torro’s Frankenstein!

Still time to grab a ticket to listen to me talk about chlamydia from the comfort of your sofa tonight! What better way to end Valentine’s weekend…

It’s Valentine’s Day - so here’s an illustration from McLaren’s Atlas of Venereal Disease from 1889

I’ll be talking cocks with @k8lister.bsky.social in Edinburgh - the perfect Valentine present!

The Edinburgh Science Festival programme is now live! Come and see me on 14th April www.edinburghscience.co.uk/event/dissec...

This image, from the Sisters of Mercy’s Body and Soul EP, shows Dante and the poet Virgil in the lowest levels of the Inferno. Here there is only silence, as the sinners are engulfed in ice. This and more fun facts can be learned in my Goths for Breakfast talk!

What’s a better haunted house than Hell itself? I’ll be speaking about Dante’s deeply gothic Inferno at this day-long event but, more importantly, so will @anatomicalcat.bsky.social and @gothicbodies.bsky.social !

This is an amazing cause, and I will be speaking at 3 on body snatching on film - come and join us!

The extraordinary Capella dos Ossos in Faro, Portugal. I had the chapel to myself for a while when I visited, and through an open window behind me there was the sound of very young children laughing and playing in the garden of a nearby nursery. It was an incredibly moving experience.

If ever there were three people I wanted to have a drink with, it would be @k8lister.bsky.social, @goingmedieval.bsky.social, and @anatomicalcat.bsky.social! This is gonna be such a great event 👇

The young squire Raskolnikov is one of Castle Pieterstein’s more enigmatic denizens, and he keeps his own counsel, but his loyalty to La Contessa is absolute. [CW snake]

Very excited to be part of this!

This table may seem odd in that there is a foot and four ears on it - but in fact the whole table top is made of petrified human remains. It was made by Efisio Marini and gifted to Napoleon III in 1867, and it can now be seen in the Musée de l’histoire de la médecine in Paris.

The Purgatory Chapel of St Michael’s Church in Untergriesbach, Bavaria displays a small collection of bones, included skulls that have been painted, usually with the name and dates of the person, sometimes their occupation, and other decoration.

Beyond the Knife is back for 2026! In a not-so-romantic pre-Valentine’s special, our Human Remains Conservator Cat Irving unpacks the fascinating history of syphilis. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts. shows.acast.com/beyond-the-k...

An anatomical Christ, made in Germany - probably Bavaria - in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century

And here am I, doing one of my very successful online lectures for Romancing The Gothic.

I saw this model by Gaetano Giulio Zumbo in Paris on Saturday. He was a wax modeller who worked with a surgeon in Genoa, replicating his dissections in wax. Only two of his models survive from the end of the 17thC. I’ve posted photos of the one in La Specola in Florence before - this is the other

Giving one of my earliest talks on the 1832 Anatomy Act…

A skull peers out from a wall of long bones Skulls in the ossuary of the Church of St James, Brno, which holds the remains of more than 50,000 people

One of the catacomb saints in Ursberg,Germany - skeletons from catacombs in Rome that were sent over the Alps during the Counter Reformation to places where saints’ relics had been destroyed. Their ostentatious garments and gems were a declaration of the rewards that God gave to good Catholics

Plaster models showing eye diseases, made by French doctor Félix Thibert in the 1830s. He wanted all doctors to have access to a clinical picture of all common diseases so produced a series of models like these intended as a three dimensional encyclopaedia

Thinking back to an amazing time in Borneo

This is a wax model made in 19thC Brussels showing an enlarged heart. Also known as cardiomegaly, it can be caused by a variety of conditions such as high blood pressure, cardiomyopathy, heart valves problems, or blocked coronary arteries - basically, anything that makes the heart work harder.