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Amelia Soth

Amelia Soth

Amelia Soth is a Wisconsin-based writer. She also writes and edits for Mouse Magazine, and more of her writing can be found at ameliasoth.com.

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Girls' Beating the Bounds' at a fence near St Albans in Hertfordshire, 1913
Cabinet of Curiosities

“Beating the Bounds”

How did people find out where their local boundaries were before there were reliable maps?
An abbey cellarer testing his wine. Illumination from a copy of Li livres dou santé by Aldobrandino of Siena, late 13th century
Cabinet of Curiosities

When Monks Went Undercover to Steal Relics

Because relics were understood to be capable of working miracles, any relic that was stolen must have wanted to be.
The Last Day of Pompeii by Karl Brullov
Cabinet of Curiosities

Pompeii Mania in the Era of Romanticism

Nothing appealed more perfectly to the Romantic sensibility than the mix of horror and awe evoked by a volcano erupting.
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Schreibzeug_(Nürnberg).jpg
Cabinet of Curiosities

How Renaissance Artisans Turned Live Animals into Silver

Lifecasting was the renaissance art of making sculptures using molds taken from real-life plants and animals.
A 17th century standing cup
Cabinet of Curiosities

These Bizarre Ivory Cups Were Carved by Princes

The royal houses of Europe felt that it would be good for their sons to learn a manual trade. Artisans taught nobles to carve ivory on a lathe.
Design for Necklace with Brazilian Beetles, ca. 1900
Cabinet of Curiosities

Insect Jewelry of the Victorian Era

The wing-cases of gold-enameled weevils hung from necklaces; muslin gowns were embroidered with the iridescent green elytra of jewel beetles.
Sultan Mehmed III of the Ottoman Empire
Cabinet of Curiosities

Why Ottoman Sultans Locked Away Their Brothers

Fratricide among rival princes was legal and widely practiced until 1603, so confinement to the palace was actually an improvement.
Pendant in the Form of Neptune and a Sea Monster
Cabinet of Curiosities

The Lumpy Pearls That Enchanted the Medicis

There’s a specific term for these irregular pearls: “baroque,” from the Portuguese barroco.
"The Vexed Man" by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt at The Getty Center in Los Angeles, California.
Cabinet of Curiosities

The Man Whose Face Got Stuck Like That

No one could have predicted Franz Xaver Messerschmidt’s turn to the bizarre.
The Dance of Death
Cabinet of Curiosities

A Roman Feast… of Death!

The banquet hall was painted black from ceiling to floor. By the pale flicker of grave lamps, the invited senators coud make out a row of tombstones.
The cover of A Book to Burn by Li Zhi
Cabinet of Curiosities

Burn This Book!

Li Zhi’s exasperation with the corruption, greed, and superficiality of the powerbrokers in his society fueled his rebellious writing.
Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (Paracelsus)
Cabinet of Curiosities

The Occult Remedy the Puritans Embraced

Why did the Puritans embrace a medical treatment that looked suspiciously like black magic?
Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia by Michiel Jansz. van Miereveldt
Cabinet of Curiosities

The Afterlife of Royal Hair

Whether worn as a lovelock or set in elaborate jewelry, the clipped-off hair of Kings and Queens outlived the monarchs themselves.
A paper theater
Cabinet of Curiosities

Paper Theaters: The Home Entertainment of Yesteryear

In the nineteenth century, enterprising toymakers developed a novel way to bring theater into the home.
A lode stone encased in a gilded stand
Cabinet of Curiosities

The Souls of Magnets

Lodestones are dull, lumpy, and slate-gray, but their “magnetic intelligence” made them fabulously expensive.
Rustam captures the King of Mâzandarân and takes him before the tent of Kay Kâ'ûs.
Cabinet of Curiosities

The Movable Tent Cities of the Ottoman Empire

The most lavish among them were festooned with colorful appliqué and brightened with gilded leather.
Scottish quack doctor James Graham
Cabinet of Curiosities

The Prince of Quacks (and How He Captivated London)

James Graham, founder of the Temple of Health, benefitted from his undeniable flair for showmanship and his talent for leaping on trends.
Allegorical Groups Representing the Four Continents: America by Francesco Bertos
Cabinet of Curiosities

These Gravity-Defying Sculptures Provoked Accusations of Demonic Possession

Demons and artists, it seems, pull from the same bag of tricks. They take ordinary matter and transform it into something more wondrous, more terrifying.
A physician administers leeches to a patient. Colour reproduction of a lithograph by F-S. Delpech after L. Boilly, 1827.
Cabinet of Curiosities

Why Did the Victorians Harbor Warm Feelings for Leeches?

Medical authorities wrote about leeches as if they sucked blood out of the goodness of their hearts.
A basilisk with a beam of light extending from its eye
Cabinet of Curiosities

The Extremely Real Science behind the Basilisk’s Lethal Gaze

According to the extramission theory of vision, our eyes send out beams of elemental fire that spread, nerve like, to create the visual field.
From a poster for Charles Frohman’s dramatic production, The Hand of Destiny by Pierre Decourcelle, 1896
Cabinet of Curiosities

Why Did “Thieves’ Cant” Carry an Unshakeable Allure?

If thieves’ cant—a language known only to criminals—was the Devil’s cabinet, bourgeois society couldn’t help but peep inside.
Pope Formosus and Stephen VI by Jean Paul Laurens, 1870
Cabinet of Curiosities

The Cadaver Synod: Putting a Dead Pope on Trial

Why did Pope Stephen VI go to such great lengths to destroy an enemy who was already dead?
Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Willem van der Meer by Michiel van Mierevelt
Cabinet of Curiosities

Public Dissection Was a Gruesome Spectacle

Renaissance-era anatomists taught people to “knowe thyself” by reading the books of bodies.
Tarantella dancers, 1828
Cabinet of Curiosities

When Dancing Plagues Struck Medieval Europe

The tarantella is named for a peasant woman from southern Italy whose tarantula bite started a contagious dancing fever!
Zen Encounter (Niaoke Daolin and Bai Juyi)
Cabinet of Curiosities

Elixirs of Immortal Life Were a Deadly Obsession

Ironically enough.

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