Spot me, circa.2000.

Superficial anatomy of the face in an eighteenth century wax model by Clemente Susini in La Specola, Florence

Tomorrow!

An arch of bones in the chapel at the side of the Igreja de Sao Sebastiao in the beautifully seaside town of Lagos in Portugal.

A modern model showing the anatomy of the mandible - featuring removable teeth with cavities!

A photo of the skull of Dante Alighieri from Fabio Frassetto’s 1933 book ‘Dantis Ossa’ (Dante’s bones). Since his death in 1321, his remains have been moved, hidden, lost, and examined. That he has had an eventful postmortem life is not unusual - and his is certainly not the strangest story.

Our Human Remains Conservator @anatomicalcat.bsky.social, will be joined by author Katherine Venables to discuss her book on her father Harry Walker’s experiences during the Burma campaign in the Second World War in our latest Dissecting the Author event. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dissecting...

Join our Human Remains Conservator @anatomicalcat.bsky.social to explore the history of Gonorrheoa and why it became commonly known as The Clap.

Appropriate decor in our hotel tonight…

Decomposition! My job is to stop it but I saw it regularly back in the days when I worked in the mortuary. This isn’t real, however, but made of wax in the late 17thC. It was produced by a Sicilian wax modeler named Gaetano Giulio Zumbo for the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo de Mexico.

Am really looking forward to this - if you're interested in archive research, ghost stories or even my insane story as to how I overcame a decade of homelessness and heroin addiction to get to where I am today, please buy a ticket!

One of the absolute highlights of my trip to Ingolstadt in September was seeing the exhibition ´Ansichtssache’ (a matter of perspective) at the German Medical History Museum. It showed the knitted anatomy of Katharina Sabernig, and I can’t say how much I loved it!

Illustration of heart anatomy by Anna Maria D’Errico at the Institute of Human Anatomy of the University of Siena, during the 1960s.

Part two of my evening!

Part one of my evening!

I’m talking decomposition tonight, so I’m wearing my fly ring

Some of the skulls in the Church of the Dead in Urbania. The Latin inscription reads - it is ordained for all men to die once.

🎶 He cares not if you’re sleeping / Nor if you are awake / Your mind a fragile toy for Him / Your blood His thirst will slake 🎶

Anatomical plaster bust made in the eighteenth century by A. Nicolas

It was lovely to see homage to the Hunterian Museum’s Evelyn Tables in @realgdt.bsky.social Frankenstein. These four tables were made in Padua, taking arteries, veins and nerves dissected in Padua’s famous anatomical theatre, pasting them to boards and varnishing them to protect and preserve

The fabulous skeleton of St. Pancratius in the Church of St. Nikolaus in Wil, Switzerland. He is a catacomb saints - skeletons exhumed in Rome and sent across the Alps to replace those destroyed during the Reformation. They typically ended up elaborately dressed and bejewelled

The ossuary of Eggenburg in Austria

This is Udny Green Morthouse, Aberdeenshire, a round building with a heavy oak door. Inside is a 5.5m cast iron turntable. Coffins would be put in and moved around for up to 3 months before being taken out for burial - by which point they were no use to anatomists

If you’re in Edinburgh come and join me for an exploration of the Dance of Death. Tomorrow night!

Forgot to post the ghosts I made last weekend (delicious, though some of them vomited their filling over their own eyes while in the oven.)

A plate from Anatomie générale des viscères by Jacques-Fabien Gautier D’Agoty (1752). It is an early example of colour printing, using engraved metal plates to make four separate impressions in black, red, yellow, and blue inks to produce the final image

A scene from the Totentanz - Dance of Death - in Bleibach, Germany, which dates to 1723, and still has all 34 scenes - made up of 33 couples and a skeletal band - along with the accompanying text, making it one of the most complete in Europe. This scene shows Death with the Burgher.

I said that I would post more about my visit to the Chiesa dei Morti. The church contains 18 preserved remains which have been displayed in cases since 1833. The majority were preserved by natural processes which occurred in the burial ground, and were discovered when the bodies were being relocated

A bisected skeleton in the University of Siena. This is very useful to help understand some anatomical features - here you can see clearly see the arterial grooves for the middle meningeal artery insid the skull. These grooves come from pulsation of the blood putting pressure on the bone

Our house.

A wax model showing the anatomy of the eye. The sclera - the white of the eye - is peeled back to reveal the nerves going to the iris. Doesn’t it look like a flower?

Next EdFortSoc: 12th Nov 2025, 7.30pm @anatomicalcat.bsky.social will be speaking on: Will You Join The Dance? A brief history of the Danse Macabre Plus! Grand auction of books, etc.! The Royal Oak 1 Infirmary Street Edinburgh 7.30pm, £1

Skulls of Santa Croce…

@drlindseyfitz.bsky.social @bschillace.brandyschillace.com @anatomicalcat.bsky.social @moviessilently.bsky.social @gnofhorror.com I covet this poster as I have never coveted anything The IMAX poster for Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein, by artist James Jean. I am ENTHRALLED

Dissected torso produced in wax by the famed Florentine modeller Clemente Susini

This is the Capella dos Ossos in Faro, Portugal, with autumnal light slanting beautifully over the bones. I could hear small children laughing in the playground behind the chapel, emphasising the fragility of the boundary between life and death, reminding me to appreciate the small beauties in life

Went shopping. Came home with a skeleton.

Excellent evening yesterday attending the online 'meet the author' event, hosted by @surgeonshall.bsky.social and the brill @anatomicalcat.bsky.social, chatting to the wonderful and inspiring @mollyconisbee.bsky.social about her beautiful book, and all things death studies. Thanks all!

One of the places I visited whilst on holiday in Italy last week was the wonderful anatomy museum at the University of Siena. This is a preparation showing eye anatomy made from human bone and wax dating to 1887.

Very much looking forward to chatting to @mollyconisbee.bsky.social about this extraordinary - and beautiful! - book tomorrow for Dissecting the Author at @surgeonshall.bsky.social .This is an online event, and you can join us by getting a ticket here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dissecting...

In 2017, Jessica was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. During a chance visit to the museum she encountered a thyroid with a nodular Goitre. Recently she sat down with our Human Remains Conservator, Cat Irving, to discuss how this visit helped her come to terms with her cancer diagnosis. [1/2]

I ended up spending longer in Bologna than expected this week, and this was one of the unexpected delights of that extra time. It’s an early sixteenth century tondelli - round stained glass window - showing the Triumph of Death, made in the German regions, and based on an engraving by Albrecht Dürer

Revisiting the wonderful models of La Specola today.

My husband’s book cover as a t-shirt! Direct from the British Library!

Today I visited the Chiesa dei Morte - the Church of the Dead - in Urbania. I’ll post more about this soon…

Another one of Dr Louis Auzoux’s ‘anatomie clastique’ mannequins - life-sized anatomical statues made from his own special papier-mâché, which can be taken apart to explore the anatomy. I’ve seen many of these, but they always make me happy. This particular one is in the Medical Museum in Brussels

A wax model showing the heart, viewed from behind. It was made in the eighteenth century by Clemente Susini in Florence, and was part of a collection of more than a thousand models shipped to Vienna to be used for teaching at Joseph II’s new academy of military medicine.

‘Exquisite Pain’ - Damien Hirst’s take on the flayed figure of St Bartholomew, brandishing a scalpel in homage to those people whose skin had been removed for anatomical study in neighbouring St Bart’s hospital. In the gloriously beautiful Romanesque church of St Bartholomew the Great

Cat's talks ARE FUCKING AMAZING. She's the most knowledgeable person on death I know. Get tickets and watch her!!

Who wants to hear me talk about the Dance of Death? That’s what I’m going to be doing on Thursday - it’s online, and you can get tickets here: thelasttuesdaysociety.org/event/will-y...