London Month of the Dead - The Skull of Adam

THE SKULL OF ADAM Anatomy and the Catholic Church with Cat Irving on Saturday the 2nd November 2024 at 1:30 pm In Canterbury Cathedral the tomb of a church elder is encrusted with intricately carved marble bones. A basilica in the German town of Waldsassen is guarded by an array of finely dressed and elaborately jewelled skeletons. Fifty miles west of Prague a church boasts a magnificent chandelier made entirely from human bones. The catacombs under the church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini in Rome have elaborate architecture and artefacts made from the bones of the friars who once resided there. There are at least four locations which claim to hold the skull of John the Baptist. And five which allegedly store the physical relics of St Valentine. And let’s not even talk about Jesus’s foreskin… The Catholic Church has a long relationship with human remains, one which only begins with the body of Christ. This talk by Human Remains Conservator Cat Irving will investigate what this relationship reveals about our understanding of anatomy and the role the church played in this development. Using a myriad of images of bones and relics from churches across Europe, Cat will examine what this tells us about the history of human dissection, and about the dark space inside us all. Tickets £12 including a delightful gin cocktail and a 20% donation to the King's Chaplaincy Trust. Please click here to purchase. Cat Irving Cat Irving has been the Human Remains Conservator for Surgeons’ Hall since 2015 and has been caring for anatomical and pathological museum collections for over twenty years. After a degree in Anatomical Science she began removing brains and sewing up bodies at the Edinburgh City Mortuary. Following training in the care of wet tissue collections at the Royal College of Surgeons of England she worked with the preparations of William Hunter at the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow University. Cat is a licensed anatomist, and gives regular talks on anatomy and medical history, as well as writing the blog Wandering Bones. Recently she has carried out conservation work on the skeleton of serial killer William Burke prior to his display in National Museum of Scotland.

THE SKULL OF ADAM
Anatomy and the Catholic Church with Cat Irving
on Saturday the 2nd November 2024 at 1:30 pm

In Canterbury Cathedral the tomb of a church elder is encrusted with intricately carved marble bones. A basilica in the German town of Waldsassen is guarded by an array of finely dressed and elaborately jewelled skeletons. Fifty miles west of Prague a church boasts a magnificent chandelier made entirely from human bones. The catacombs under the church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini in Rome have elaborate architecture and artefacts made from the bones of the friars who once resided there. There are at least four locations which claim to hold the skull of John the Baptist. And five which allegedly store the physical relics of St Valentine. And let’s not even talk about Jesus’s foreskin…

The Catholic Church has a long relationship with human remains, one which only begins with the body of Christ. This talk by Human Remains Conservator Cat Irving will investigate what this relationship reveals about our understanding of anatomy and the role the church played in this development. Using a myriad of images of bones and relics from churches across Europe, Cat will examine what this tells us about the history of human dissection, and about the dark space inside us all.

Tickets £12 including a delightful gin cocktail and a 20% donation to the King's Chaplaincy Trust. Please click here to purchase.

Cat Irving
Cat Irving has been the Human Remains Conservator for Surgeons’ Hall since 2015 and has been caring for anatomical and pathological museum collections for over twenty years. After a degree in Anatomical Science she began removing brains and sewing up bodies at the Edinburgh City Mortuary. Following training in the care of wet tissue collections at the Royal College of Surgeons of England she worked with the preparations of William Hunter at the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow University. Cat is a licensed anatomist, and gives regular talks on anatomy and medical history, as well as writing the blog Wandering Bones. Recently she has carried out conservation work on the skeleton of serial killer William Burke prior to his display in National Museum of Scotland.