Cat Irving

I gave a conference paper in the library directly below the anatomical theatre in Bologna two years ago! That felt pretty special.

a portion of stained glass showing a skeletal figure in a winding sheet flying in the air and holding a scroll

À différent portion of the same stained glass showing a skeletal figure wrapped in a sheet brandishing an arrow and riding into a crowd.

The full round stained glass showing the precocious two figures with Germanic text rubbing around the outside. The colour palette is yellow and brown

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

A room crowded with 18thC wood and glass cabinets with a red haired woman in a black dress looking happy in the middle

Revisiting the wonderful models of La Specola today.

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

Three mummified bodies in wooden cases. The central figure is in religious robes holding a staff with a skull and cross bones and wearing a silver badge with memento mori image

A yellow sign which reads chiesa dei motto sec. XIV

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

The head and shoulders of an anatomical model with a downcast expression

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

I have indeed been to the Narrenturm! (Though if this photo is to be believed I didn’t open my eyes ;p). The heart is in the collection of the Josephinum, which is a short walk from there.

A colourful wax heart, viewed from behind.

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.

No! Post mortem

A golden flayed figure with skin draped over his arm. The right arm is outstretched holding a scalpel. Dramatic church arches are behind.

‘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

The trouble is that I am that pedantic and arsey…

Indeed! That would be lovely. And I’ve just realised that autocorrect has stuck an apostrophe in your name, so excuse me while I go and put my hair shirt on…

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

Thank you so much! Too kind, Mr Main’s 💀🖤💀🖤💀🖤💀

Four skeletal figures in a landscape with some architectural arches framing it. Each one holds a different instrument

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...

A stack of skulls with crossed long bones between them. The top skull is painted in old fashioned Germanic script

An alter with a large crucified Christ with a pair of cherubs by his head and two female figures standing each side. There is a round window with baroque decoration behind, with the light glancing through. There is an altar in front with two candles and ivy on a white cloth. Beneath the altar is an arrangement of skulls, including those from the previous photo.

Being back in Bavaria reminded me of this church I visited last time I was there in 2023. The Purgatory Chapel of St Michael’s Church in Untergriesbach has a small collection of skulls, some of which are painted

Isn’t it?!

That sounds like a visit with a tale behind it!

Photograph of a conference stage, showing the title slide of a talk entitled “Beyond Bentham: Re-examining Ideas of Consent and Body Donation through Museum Collections in the UK and Ireland” by Evi Numen (Old Anatomy Museum, Dublin) Cat Irving (Surgeons’ Hall Museums, Edinburgh) Trish Biers (The Duckworth Laboratoy, Cambridge)

It was an absolute honour to give a talk with the fabulous @anatomicalcat.bsky.social in collaboration with the also fabulous @drtrishbiers.bsky.social in a session chaired by none other than the @hunterianmuseum.bsky.social ‘s Dawn Kemp, at #iammc2025!

🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

Oh, that’s a place I haven’t been in Vienna!

A wall mounted tomb in a shiny brown stone - possibly a type of marble. It shows a recumbent skeleton (pictured from the waist up) with worms coming out of the eyes and amongst the ribs (which aren’t anatomically correct)

I’ve had an amazing week in Ingolstadt for two inspiring conferences with wonderful people. And, of course, the Münster has this amazing transi tomb of Johannes Permetter, showing his corpse consumed by worms. Permetter died in 1505

Yes, there are a number of cases like this. Here in Edinburgh we have the grave of one of Charles Darwin’s relatives (also called Charles Darwin) who died following infection from a cut during a dissection. With alessandrini, gangrene set in, requiring amputation

A tall round jar filled with a pale yellow fluid, slightly murky, containing a human arm from just below the elbow. The hand is at the top of the jar, fingers slightly curled.

This arm was amputated from Antonio Alessandrini in the mid-19thC. He was Professor of Comparative Anatomy in Bologna, and the amputation was a result of an injury during a dissection. The arm was then preserved and displayed in Alessandrini’s own museum. You can see it in the Palazzo Poggi

Two skeletal figures with a warlike bearing. The first wears a tricorn hat and a yellow sash, while the second has a red drape. There is a scroll with Germanic script below them, and you can see the head and shoulders of a dead woman in front of them.

Part of a scene in the Spreuer Bridge, Lucerne, Switzerland, a medieval covered bridge which had 67 scenes from the Danse Macabre painted in its rafters between 1626 and 1635. This would show travellers that death comes for everyone.

How did you know…?!

A model of the female pelvic region where you can see the kidneys and major abdominal blood vessels, and three foetuses lying outside the uterus

Looking at this 18thC model of female pelvic anatomy, you see three foetuses. This isn’t showing pregnancy with triplets - it’s an intended to show different types of ectopic pregnancy. You can see ovarian, tubal, and peritoneal. It was produced by sculptor Francesc Citarelli to teach obstetrics

A taxidermy pig with sticky out teeth. It has one head with two bodies. It is stood on two sets of hind legs, and almost seem like it is dancing.

This is a pig with syncephaly, a condition where there is one head but two bodies - and four ears, though here the extra ears have fused together, and can’t be seen from this angle. It was prepared for the collection of anatomist and obstetrician William Hunter in the nineteenth century.

Skulls piled against a sign that says ‘Priéz Dieu pour nous’.

‘Pray for us’. - The ossuary of Marville in France.

I got him on eBay for £17.