History
There
are two types of embalming: natural and artificial. Natural embalming
occurs with no human intervention. Freezing, a dry cold climate, a hot
dry climate, and natural soil compositions are the most common causes of a
natural embalming.
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Bocksten Man was found in Sweden
at the Bocksten Farm in 1936. He was found buried in a part of the farm
that had been a lake in the 1400s, when he died. Over the years, the lake
turned into a peat bog. Evidence shows that Bocksten Man had been
murdered and thrown into the lake to hide his body.
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Artificial embalming occurs when chemicals are introduced onto
or into the body. The reasons for intentional embalming vary by culture
with the most common being afterlife beliefs, religious rituals, and the need
to stall decomposition.
The oldest European embalmed body was found in Palencia,
Spain. The 2800 BC bones were well preserved by a covering of crushed
cinnabar, also known as vermillion (mercury sulfide). The large amount of
cinnabar found with the body and the fact that the nearest mine is 100 miles
away led researchers to believe that the body was intentionally embalmed.
Around 2600 BC Egyptians began intentionally embalming their
dead using heat, mercury, balsams, aromatics, and salts. Their techniques
continued on through the Middle Ages and Renaissance years.
Accounts of Alexander the Great’s death (332 BC) describe his
embalming by a honey and beeswax immersion for his trip from Babylon where he
died to his final resting place in Memphis. We do not know how effective it
was. All we know is that he was buried in a gold coffin and later reinterred in
glass.
Medieval Through Elizabethan Years
Focusing on our time period of study, artificial embalming was
only performed on royalty, nobility, and clergy. Funeral delay (including
travel) was the number one reason to embalm through Elizabeth’s era, but
scientific study by autopsy and dissection became the second reason to embalm a
body with the earliest (although rare) accounts in the early 1300’s.
Embalming
There were three types of embalming methods: immersion,
evisceration, and excarnation. Immersion seems to lose favor by the 1300s,
probably because of its lackluster effectiveness. Evisceration is
seen throughout the 800-1600 time period. Excarnation was very
effective and is recorded up to about 1500. A study of 85 noblemen and
women from the years 877-1493 showed that 33 of the 85 we excarnated and of
those 2/3 died during war. The remaining 52 were eviscerated, suggesting
that evisceration was the more popular method if there was an option to choose.
The study consisted of 76 males and 9 females from the countries of Germany,
France, British Isles, and Bohemia. Forty one were royalty including
kings, queens, princes, and dukes. Thirty were members of the clergy. Thirteen
were knights and lower nobleman.
Immersion
Immersion embalming involved a body being soaked in a solution
of vinegar, wine, or honey. In true immersion embalming, the body is not
opened and the internal organs are left in place. Early accounts such as
Alexander the Great and Justin II describe the embalming of the body by leaving
it immersed in its solution up to and including burial. Justin II (520 –
578) was embalmed by immersion in honey before burial in Church of the Holy
Saints in Constantinople. As with Alexander the Great, there are no
accounts of the effectiveness of his embalming. Later in period many
bodies that were embalmed used immersion as just one step of the process after
the organs had been removed. This immersion would have kept the body fresh
while the embalmer continued his work on the organs.
Evisceration
Evisceration during embalmment was practiced as early as the
Egyptians, and medieval society not only knew of it but also participated in
it. Many embalming procedures and materials were identical to the Egyptians,
with the only difference being the time it took to embalm. Egyptian
embalming took as much as 70 days whereas medieval embalming could take a few
hours to a few days to complete.
When the body was opened, the organs were removed and the whole
body including the internal cavity was washed with water, wine, vinegar, or
Aqua Vitae. Sometimes the body was then submerged in the liquid for a few
hours before continuing with the process.. In some embalming, the
embalmer also made deep incisions into the body, usually at the groin,
underarm, buttocks, and extremities. The deep incisions and the open
cavity of the torso were packed full with cloth, natural sponges, or grasses
and straw that had been soaked in whatever liquid was used for washing and a combination
of aromatic herbs and spices and in some cases mercury or lead. The
body was then wrapped in linen, then cerecloth, and sometimes a body bag made
of leather before being placed in a coffin of lead or wood. Many corpses were
buried in a lead coffin then placed inside an adorned wood coffin for burial.
Originally the entrails were simply burned or buried in the town
where the death and embalming occurred. Later, the heart and other organs were
embalmed and placed in their own coffins for burial in other churches. This was
seen most often with royals who through death could still lay claim to parts of
their country as well as honor those cities or towns. The organs were treated
to the exact same processes as the body complete with washing, immersion,
stuffing of spices, and wrapping in linen and cerecloth.
There are some cases of evisceration being performed during
embalming of a sick person. The excarnation embalming of Emperor
Barbarossa’s men in 1167, for instance, involved their entrails being removed
before dismemberment and boiling. However, many doctors would not embalm a
person if it meant opening them up when communicable disease was suspected.
Ladislas of Hungary died of leukemia in 1457 but was thought to have died of
the plague. Duke Albert died in Hungary in 1463. Doctors found black carbuncles
– a potential sign of the Bubonic Plague – on his body. In both cases,
the men were not embalmed.
The first detailed historical account we have of evisceration in
the medieval era is for Charlemagne. Charlemagne died on January 28, 814 in
Aachen. His body was washed internally and externally, the organs removed
and the body dehydrated in salt. He was dressed in robes, seated with his crown
and scepter on a throne in his burial vault.
From The Chronicle Novalisea, 1026 we learn that the embalming
was successful: “He had not lost any of his members to decay,
except only the tip of his nose. Emperor Otto replaced this with gold, took a
tooth from Charles’s mouth, walled up the entrance to the chamber and
withdrew.”
In the Song of Roland (1028) we read: “Their bodies bid open before his eyes; All their hearts in silken
veils to wind; And set them in coffers of marble white. After, they take
the bodies of those knights; Each of the three is wrapped in a deer’s hide;
They’re washed well in allspice and in wine”
After the death of William the Conqueror in 1087, his body was
embalmed in a similar fashion to Charlemagne; the body was washed internally
and externally and the organs were removed before the body was packed in salt.
One of the first detailed accounts of the viscera being buried
separately came from the death of Otto in 973. Otto’s organs were buried in
Memleben, Germany, where he died while his embalmed body was returned to
Magdeburg, Germany, 2 weeks after death.
The German Emperors Conrad II (d 1040), Henry III (d
1056), Henry IV (d 1106), and Henry V (d 1125) were all buried at
Speyer Cathedral in Speyer, Germany, with their viscera buried
elsewhere.. Conrad’s organs were buried at Cathedral of Saint Martin,
Utrecht, Netherlands. Henry III’s heart went to Goslar, Germany to be interred
near his daughter. Henry IV’s organs stayed at Liège, Belgium, where he
died. Henry V, like Conrad, had his entrails buried at the Cathedral of
Saint Martin in Utrecht.
The first English King to have his body buried separately was
Henry I who died in 1135 in Rouen, France. His body was eviscerated and the
organs buried at Rouen and his body taken to Reading Abbey in England.
Richard the Lionheart died on April 6, 1199 after an arrow wound
became septic. He willed his entrails to be buried in Chaluz, France, his
heart in Rouen, France, and his body in Fontevraud, France. This is the first
time we see three separate burials for one body. The practice of burying parts
of the body in multiple places, known as “Dilaceratio corporis”, became
popular after Richard’s burial. By 1240 it was fairly popular in all of France
and by 1314 all French royalty were buried with heart, entrails, and body
separate.
Excarnation
Excarnation is the defleshing of bones. The common phrase
in period was Mos Teutonicus, a German word
after the Teutonic Knights. An excarnated body was first eviscerated with
the organs either buried on site or burned. Next the body was dismembered. Lastly,
the flesh was boiled off the bone in water, wine, or vinegar. The cleaned
bones were them wrapped in deer or bull hides and sent back home for burial.
Excarnation’s most common use was for long distance travel of a
body. This method dates to 992, when Bishop Gerdag died on his way home from
Rome. He was taken back to Germany via excarnation. Otto III died in January
1002 in Italy. The historical account says that his “intestines” were sent back
to Augsburg, Germany for burial, while his body was interred in Aachen.
The account also says that two barrels were used for the trip, leading me
to believe his “body” in Aachen was only bones while his boiled flesh and all
of his organs were sent to Augsburg. Modern research and
examination has shown that Lothair of Supplingenburg, the Saxon King and Holy
Roman Emperor, was excarnated in 1137 after dying crossing the Alps. His
bones were carried from Tyrol, Italy to Saints Peter and Paul in Koniglutter,
Germany. In 1167 an epidemic most likely of plague or typhus hit
Rome, and many noblemen in Emperor Barbarossa’s army fell victim. They were
boiled before their bones were sent back to their homelands.
On Crusade (1095 – 1291) proper embalming of a fallen soldier
would have been unrealistic. Many were buried where they fell, but the
nobility were excarnated and sent home. Louis IX of France died
during the Eighth Crusade against Tunisia in 1270 and was excarnated for his
burial at St. Denis nine months after his death. Philip III of France
died in Perpignan in October 1285 during the Argonese Crusade. His son,
Phillip the Fair, had his father’s body publicly boiled in wine and water and
his organs, save the heart, burned. He then ignored Phillip III’s wishes
to have his entrails buried in the Dominican church in Narbonne and his heart
and body at St. Denis. Instead, Philip the Fair sent his father’s entrails to
La Noe in Normandy, his flesh and bones to Narbonne Cathedral, and his heart to
the Dominican church in Paris. He was later reinterred in St Denis near his
wife’s body.
In 1299 Pope Boniface decreed in a Papal Bull, Detestande feritatis that any dismemberment or
evisceration of a body would result in excommunication of the perpetrator.
“There has come to be practiced and abominable
act of cruelty on the part of certain Christian people, following and atrocious
custom… Christians subject to this perverse custom, driven by a
sacrilegious concern, savagely empty the body of its entrails and, horribly
dismembering it or cutting up into bits; throw it in a cauldron of water to
boil it up over a fire. When the fleshing covering has thus been detached
from the bones, they take the bones back to the chosen site for burial… If the
testamentary executors of a dead person, or those close to him or her, or anyone
else whosoever, whatever their rank or birth, even if they be vested with the
episcopal divinity, shall dare to infringe this our edict by treating
inhumanely and cruelly the body of a dead person, or causing it to be so
treated, let them know that they will be struck by excommunication by the very
fact of their deed..”
While Pope Boniface was truly disgusted with the idea of
excarnation and dismemberment, the Papal Bull probably had more to do with his
ongoing conflicts with Philip the Fair than the embalming technique.
Clearly excarnation had a long history in Europe that included all of Pope
Boniface’s life, and he had been Pope for 5 years before taking such offense as
to outlaw it. Pope Boniface restated his position again in 1300 and 1303,
but after his death later that year, the order was loosened. Dispensation was
granted by the church to royals, nobility and ecclesiastics to have any form of
embalming they chose for their own death and burial.
It is possible that Boniface did not intend for his Bull to
include embalming or autopsy and dissections for scientific purposes. The Papal
Bull only described excarnation for the purpose of returning the bones to their
home. He says nothing about using bodies for science, however many
believed the Bull included dissection and autopsy.
Guido de Vigevano an Italian physician and anatomist, in 1370
complied with the Papal Bull, saying “since the church forbids the preforming
of anatomy on the human body, and since the art of medicine cannot know
everything without having first learned anatomy, I wish to demonstrate the
anatomy of the human body by means of pictures correctly painted…” Others
were willing to continue their work through embalming and dissection but chose
to refrain from boiling any part of the corpse. Italian surgeon Mondino
de Luzzi states in 1320 that he had to leave certain bones unexamined because
to do so properly would mean boiling them, “which is a sin”.
One of
the last recorded excarnations I have found was in 1422 for Henry V.
Henry died in Vincennes and was boiled there before being returned to
Westminster Abbey England in a very elaborate and public funeral procession
across England. His bones and flesh were sealed into a lead coffin and
filled with spices. A wax effigy laid atop the casket for the populace to
look upon as his closed coffin passed.
As embalming became more predictable with longer lasting effect,
excarnation fell out of favor and ended completely by the 16th century.
Later Period Embalming
Giovanni da Vigo (1450 – 1525), an Italian physician and
surgeon, wrote “Practica in Arte Chirurgica Copiosa “(Skillful Practice of
Surgery) in 1514. In his treatise he described the embalming process in
great detail including the cuts made to open a body, the way the internal organs
were extracted, the choice or ingredients for the aromatic powders, and how
they were applied to the body.
Ambroise Pare (1509-1590) was a French barber surgeon who went
on to be considered one of the fathers of modern forensic pathology. In
his 1550 treatise De la facon d’embaumer les corps morts (On the Manner
Howe to Embalme the Dead) he described his method of embalming a body by
removing the internal organs and brain, making incisions in the back and
extremities, and removing the blood by pressing it out of the limbs. Like Vigo,
Pare gives us the many ingredients that he used to make his aromatic powders.
Peter Forestus (1522 – 1597) was a Dutch physician who gives us
some of the best period historical accounts of embalming strictly for burial
purposes. His accounts were published after his death in the 1605 edition
of Peter Offenbach’s treatise on Wound Surgery. Forestus described the
embalming process and the materials used in detail for 5 named cases between
1410 and 1548, two of which he personally performed: 1410 Pope Alexander V
Bologna, Italy, 1511 Lady Johanna of Burgundy, Holland, 1537 Bishop Magoluetus
of Bologna, Italy, 1582 Countess of Hauterkerken of Hague, Holland, 1584
Princess Auraciuss of Holland.
The greatest contribution of the time was Andreas Vesalius of
Brussels. In 1545 he published the first book of human anatomy titled De Humanis Corporis Fabrica. In his book he
details embalming and gives accurate anatomical detail based on his own
dissections.
Lastly, Louis Penicher gives us a wealth of information on
embalming. He lived just out of our time period of study in the
mid-1600s, but includes in his 1669 writings many in-period and ancient
references to embalming, dissection, and autopsy. He agrees with
Herodotus that the face and head should bear no cuts or markings from the
embalming and that each hair should be in place, the face shaved, “that the
natural disposition is known with facility” [should the body be viewed]. He
discusses the Egyptian methods and remarks that “earlier history” used the same
methods (which we have seen based on the extant chronicles listed in this
paper). He also lists a large number of recipes using the exact ingredients
that we find through modern research in exhumed medieval bodies and as listed
in French and Italian treatises. In my opinion, while Penicher is
technically out of period, his information is very much in period.
Success and Failure
Embalmers did their best with the knowledge they had. In
many instances, the embalming was a success. Unfortunately, too many
times it was not – with horrific results for onlookers to witness.
Charles the Bald’s embalming was a complete failure. Charles
died in 877 in the Alps with the expectation of burial in St. Denis 155 miles
away. Immediately after death, his body was opened and eviscerated. He was then
washed and treated with wine and spices and covered in cloth wraps.
On the trip back to St Denis, his entourage was forced to stop due to the
stench of decay. His body was placed in a barrel, and pitch was used to
seal all openings and cracks. The trip resumed but was forced to a halt
again at Lyons, where Charles’ body was interred. Seven years later he
was reinterred at St. Denis without incident. No mention is made of his organs,
but considering the embalming failure, it’s possible the organs and intestines
were put back into his body.
Henry I’s embalming was another failure. After being
embalmed, he was sewn into a leather bag that had been filled with salt before
being placed in the coffin. Coffins in period were made with drainage holes to
help in the decomposition after burial. On his way to Reading Abbey 4
weeks after his death, Henry I’s leather bag and coffin began to leak foul
black liquid which servants caught in vessels that they repeatedly discarded
throughout the trip.
Henry VIII on his journey to Windsor is said to have exploded
during the night while stopping over at Syon Abbey. In the morning he was
found with a pool of rotted liquid draining from his coffin. Elizabeth I, who was
embalmed against her will, was being watched over by one of her
ladies-in-waiting when the body and head “brake with such a crack that it
splitted the woods” according to the horrified woman.
As we’ve discussed previously, Charlemagne’s body was preserved
in such a manner that when his tomb was opened 200 years later, he was still
very much intact.
Other
successful embalming can be found in the corpses of the Blessed Cristina de
Spoleto (d. 1458) and the married couple of Salimbene Cappaci (d. 1497) and his
wife Margaret Sozzine (d. 1511) from Siena Italy.
Left: Salimbene Cappai and Margaret Sozzine
Originally, royalty bodies were left open for view on their trip
to burial. When funerals were stalled or the procession was over long
distances, time outlived the embalming as is seen in these stories of failed
preservation. To combat this, wax or leather effigy masks appeared in
place of the body so the decomposing corpse or bones of the excarnated were
hidden from view. In 1422 we see Charles VI in this manner – the idea
probably taken from Henry V who died about a month previous. Elizabeth’s
effigy was in the form of paintings of her in her younger years as Queen.
Autopsy and Dissection after Embalming
Prior to 14th century, the
anatomical study of the body was allowed with oversight and regulation by local
authorities and the church. Byzantium physicians regularly embalmed,
autopsied, and dissected corpses. William of Malmesbury in the early
1100s gave orders that the livers of his dead entourage be investigated after
they had died in Constantinople. Pope Innocent III in the early 1200s requested
post mortem verification when suspicious death occurred. Later in the 1200s
Italy recognized the value of embalming and dissection and actively pursued the
art. The Franciscan friar Salimbene wrote in his 1248 book, The Twelve Calamities of Emperor Frederick II that
Frederick ordered the stomachs of two huntsmen to be cut open and the contents
inspected to see whose digestion was better.
In 2003 a fantastically preserved head and upper torso was found
in a private collection. Carbon dating placed the head as having lived in
1200-1280, well before any of the European treatises on embalming and anatomy
were written. The head and torso was male as evidenced by his red
mustache and beard still visible. He is assumed to have been around 45
years of age at the time of his death. This is the oldest example we have
of medieval peoples embalming a body through injecting substances into the
vascular system.
During his examination, researchers found a red, waxy substance
filling all arterial cavities, which turned out to be cinnabar (mercury
sulfide) and vegetal oils with egg yolk. The red coloring would have
helped his embalmers understand how the vessels worked inside the body as well
as being one of the main reasons for the state of preservation. The damage done
to the head was post-mortem, detailing how the man
was used for scientific purposes.
Still, as most of the work was passed through word of mouth from
teacher to student, there was not much written on how the procedures were
conducted or recipes for the embalming pastes and powders.
Some years after Boniface’s death many European countries -Italy
and France especially- relaxed their views on embalming and dissection, or
perhaps better explained the Papal Bull regarding only dismemberment.
Embalming, autopsy, and dissection were all legal and Italy became “The Place”
to be for anatomists to learn. Most bodies came from dead criminals, but
many were people of the nobility who wanted to understand why their loved one
died, if their death was somehow related to their family, and those who wished
for their loved ones to be donated to science; this is especially true of
women. The 1300s then saw books and treatises on surgery by French and
Italians, two of the most famous being Henri de Mondeville (1306-1320) and Guy
of Chauliac (1298-1368). These treatises shared information about the embalming
process used to prepare the corpse for the anatomical study.
Guy de Chauliac describes embalming as a way of preserving the
face from decay for eight days. His student, Pierre Argellata professor of
surgery at University of Bologna in 1397 – 1421 described his embalming of Pope
Alexander V in 1410, commenting on his ability to keep the face from decaying
for the prescribed eight days. While we have a better understanding of
the ideas of success and the methods being use, we still do not find
instruction including the amount of ingredient to use in the embalming pastes, immersion
liquids, or powders.
Holy Autopsies were performed throughout the 14th century
by ecclesiastic authorities for the practice of inspecting the internal organs
of a holy person for corporeal signs of sanctity (to enter into sainthood, for
instance). In these instances, the body had to be embalmed to preserve it long
enough to complete the exploratory autopsy, share the results with others, and
subsequent burial.
In 1308 Chiara of Montefalco, a Franciscan abbess was opened by
nuns at her abbey, and her heart and entrails were removed. She was then
embalmed with balm and myrrh. After the embalming an autopsy was
performed on the organs. The abbey nuns recorded that they found a
small crucifix in her heart and 3 gallbladder stones seen as the Holy Trinity.
In 1320 Blessed Margarita from Castello was embalmed with her heart extracted
for holy autopsy. She was found with three stones with the Holy Family images
in her heart. These findings were significant as Holy bodies only displayed
signs of the Passion.
My Project
Richard I’s heart was buried in a lead box after being embalmed
with a number of ingredients. DNA testing in 2012 found myrtle, daisy,
mint, pine, oak, plantain, alum, lime, frankincense, creosote and
mercury. Pieces of linen fabric were also found mixed with the powdered
remains.
Powdered
remains of Richard the Lionheart’s heart and the lead box it was buried in
In 1363 De Chauliac lists mercury and aromatics in his embalming
paste.
Modern tests on the 1500s Siena couple, Salimbene Capacci and
Margaret Sozzine, revealed the torso cavity was filled with sage stalks,
leaves, flowers, and seeds, rosemary stalks and leaves, foxtail grass, and
flax. Olive oil, oak, walnut, aloe, bell heather, wormwood, chamomile,
mint, sage, and dill were also found in and on the bodies.
The Blessed Cristina from Spoleto was found with several cuts in
her upper and lower limbs to remove part of the adipose tissues. She was filled
with hemp, rosemary, lavender, sage, caper, myrtle, and wild mustard as well as
olive and walnut oil.
Pare lists aqua vitae, spirits of wine, strong vinegar with
wormwood, aloe, colocynth and common salt with alum boiled together as choices
for washing and soaking. Besides evisceration, Pare also made incisions
in the back and extremities and then filled these with powder of wormwood,
cypress root, iris, carnation, nutmeg, cinnamon myrrh, aloe, chamomile, rose,
mint, dill, sage, lavender, rosemary, marjoram, and thyme. The cavity and
incisions were then stitched and the body sprinkled with turpentine, chamomile
and rose oil, adding more aromatic oils and wrapping the body in linen. The
coffin, he says, is filled dried herbs. Pare also mentions if there is a
shortage of herbs, filling the coffin with wood ash or lime will suffice.
Da Vigo described how the body is massaged with powder of thyme,
rosemary, and wormwood, then the exterior and interior of the body is filled
with more powder, linen cloth, and dried herbs and plant material before being
wrapped in cerecloth and placed in a coffin.
Forestus called for aloes, myrrh, wormwood, rosemary pumice,
marjoram.
Penicher’s list of ingredients used throughout history is
extensive: Angelica, galangal, Carolina, gentian, valerian, Florentine iris,
calamus, ginger, pyrethrum (modernly used in flea and dandruff shampoos),
rosewood, sassafras, juniper and juniper berries, oranges, boxwood, nutmeg,
mace, cloves, cubebs, spikenard, bay berries, myrtle and myrtle berries, cumin,
anise, fennel, coriander, cardamom, white and black pepper, thyme, wormwood,
laurel, mints, balm, marjoram, rosemary, sage, penny royal, red roses and rose
water, lavender and oil of lavender, oil od rosemary, caraway, dill, chamomile,
resins and gums including Burgundy pitch (spruce), aloe, myrrh, frankincense,
acacia, benzoin, turpentine, camphor, potash, lees of wine (sediment, dead
yeast on bottom of barrel), spirits of wine, common salt, rock salt, saltpeter,
alum, amber, sea-bath, and castor.
Using the information I have gleaned from my research into
medieval death and embalming, I am reproducing an embalmed organ using medieval
methods and ingredients.
Step One: Procure the organs to embalm
I chose to embalm an organ instead of a body. I was gifted with
the organs of a freshly slaughtered ram and for this project am using the heart
in honor of the French Kings who embalmed and buried their hearts separately
from their bodies.
First, I had to cut the heart away from the lungs. In the
second picture you can see the pulmonary artery that I am cutting away from the
lung. The ram’s heart is surprisingly human in appearance, which made this
project more realistic and interesting to me but creepy to the family.
Step Two: Wash the Heart
I washed the heart with water to remove all debris and blood in
the ventricles. I then prepared a bowl of spirits of wine that I had made
previously. My spirits of wine was made from a honey wine that I
distilled into hard liquor. I placed the heart in the spirits of wine and
soaked it about an hour while mixing the embalming powders and paste and
preparing the linen bands and beeswax for the cerecloth.
Step Three: Mix the Embalming Powders
Since the medieval accounts describe many different varieties of
mixes, and Penicher gave so many potential powders in his list, I felt comfortable
making up my own recipe using period ingredients. I mixed together
wormwood, juniper berries, marjoram, mint, lavender, oranges, rosemary, white
pepper, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, cumin, sage, caraway, chamomile, fennel, and
dill. I mixed these with olive oil and sea-bath to make a paste. Sea bath
was salt water from the ocean. Since I am landlocked, I chose sea salts from
the Mediterranean and dissolved them in water.
Step Four: Make the Bands of Linen
The bands of linen were used to seal the organ or body after it
had been processed with the aromatic powders or pastes. I cut strips of
white linen and set them aside.
Step Five: Massage the Heart With Aromatic
Paste
I removed the heart from the spirits of wine and drained the
fluid from the ventricles by gently pressing on it. I then patted the
heart dry with a towel. Next, the aromatic blend was rubbed into the
surface of the heart and pushed into the aorta and ventricles with my fingers.
Alum was then sprinkled over the heart.
Step Six: Wrap the Heart in Linen Bands
The linen bands were covered in the aromatic paste and then dry
herbs including lavender, grains of paradise, cloves, and nutmeg were sprinkled
over the top of the bands. The heart was placed in the center of the
bands. The bands were wrapped tightly around the heart and tied in place.
Step Seven: Make the Cerecloth
Cerecloth is linen infused with beeswax or beeswax and
turpentine. I chose to use just beeswax for safety in my kitchen and for the
horrible fumes. I cut strips and squares of linen to fit the size of the
heart then melted the beeswax over a “slow fire” as directed by my period
sources. The linen was then dipped into the beeswax until saturated and
allowed to slightly cool for handling.
Step Eight: Wrap the Heart in Cerecloth
After the cerecloth was cool enough to touch, I wrapped the
heart in the strips in the same manner as step six.
Step Nine: Finish the Wrapping and Place
the Heart in Its Coffin
The bound heart was then placed in the center of a clean square
of linen and a dry herb mix consisting of lavender, rosemary, cloves, and
marjoram was sprinkled heavily over the heart. The linen with the herbs
was then wrapped up around the heart and tied in place with a green ribbon. The
coffin was filled with salt, alum, and more spices. The heart was then
deposited into the coffin. Historically, organs should have been placed in a
lead box as its coffin, and then inside a wooden box for burial. I have
chosen to use a clear box for the coffin so the finished project can be seen
without having to be opened.
Discussion
Medieval embalming began as a way to preserve corpses. Cooks,
physicians, family members, monks, nuns, and soldiers all performed the job of
embalming if necessary. The processes used were taken from the ancient
Egyptians, but their methods were rushed and not always successful.
Later, embalming was the first step in the scientific process of anatomy and
dissection. Besides herbs, wines, and oils, mercury and lead are mentioned
in many accounts. Modern researchers have exhumed many medieval corpses with so
much mercury used that it was found pooled on the bodies and in their caskets.
I chose to only use ingredients that were safe by following
recipes and accounts calling for the use of only herbs and wines, mostly due to
not having all of the safety equipment that I felt necessary to work with
mercury. In future embalming projects I plan to experiment with recipes
using mercury, lead, and Sulphur.
I thoroughly enjoyed this project and its many intricate steps.
Before I even began the project, I had to translate Old and Middle French into
English to make sense of many of the period treatises. I had to make the
spirits of wine, the linen bands, the aromatic powders and paste, and the
cerecloth as part of the embalming process. I distilled the spirits of
wine using a wine created by my Lord James ap Llewelyn. Many of the
spices came from my own herb garden.
What I thought would be the hardest part –securing organs – was
actually the easiest. I have two lungs, two kidneys, and 2 gonads left to be
embalmed. These organs will all be embalmed using other period methods and
added to the collection.
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