I’m always looking for skeleton stories. But it’s not often that I come across an article in the scientific literature that includes references to the ancient Greek physician and herbalist Dioscorides (ca. 40-90 CE) or the medieval abbess and scholar St. Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179). So this open-access article in Science Advances, “Medieval women’s early …
Author: Anita Guerrini
Translation as a Way of Life
My essay on my experiences with translating has just appeared, open access, in Isis, the journal of the History of Science Society.
The Skeleton Trade
Although the human skeleton was well known as a symbol of mortality before 1500, the articulated skeleton does not seem to have come into its own as an object –scientific and artistic as well as symbolic – until the time of Vesalius. Curiously ubiquitous, since everyone has one, but yet largely invisible, anatomists revealed the …
A Dwarf and his Skeleton
Last month I spent some time in Special Collections at the University of Glasgow Library, looking at the catalogues of the anatomical preparations of London anatomist and man-midwife William Hunter (1718-1783). Hunter, a Scot, left his collections to the University of Glasgow, where they still reside. Among the anatomical preparations listed in 1784 was “A …
The Gruesome History of Making Human Skeletons
The fabulous online journal Atlas Obscura just published an article on some of my skeleton research. This is based on the talk, "The Whiteness of Bones," that I gave a Columbia a couple of weeks ago. Thanks to Sarah Laskow. Link here.
Anita’s famous tomato chutney
By popular demand, here is the recipe for my famous tomato chutney. It is somewhat modified from Madhur Jaffrey, An Invitation to Indian Cooking: Sweet and spicy tomato chutney 1 head of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped (yes, a whole head) a piece of fresh ginger, 2 in long, 1 in thick, 1 in wide, …
The Cats of Praia Vermelha
For the past week, I've been at the International Congress for the History of Science and Technology, held at the Praia Vermelha ("red beach") campus of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. There are a lot of cats on the campus. I don't know their background; they seem to be strays, but are well …
