Body preservation in the Middle Ages: natural and artificial mummies

Abstract

This research focuses on cases of natural and artificial mummification from the Early to Late Middle Ages in Italy and Europe. Particular attention is placed on the bodies of saints, popes and kings which – for devotional or practical purposes, such as the public exposure of the bodies – required embalming. Natural mummies are primarily represented by the bodies of saints. Relics – parts of the mummified bodies – also were researched. The phenomena of burial site expansion, as well as heart tombs, were studied in depth. These showed changes in funerary ceremonial practices (double funerals, funerary effigies) and methods of cadaver treatment (dismemberment, boiling, heart exerisis). The policy of the Papacy in response to the distribution of these practices – as exemplified in the Bull Detestandae feritatis abusum of Bonifacio VIII (1299) – is further analyzed. Finally, a note of interest: the role of the mummia in the pharmacopoeia of the Middle Ages and subsequent centuries.