top of page
curiosities bites
Bites of wonder from the world of Wunderkammern.
Small stories, big curiosities.
Unicorn horns
Among the most precious treasures of Renaissance cabinets of curiosities were "unicorn horns," long, spiraling tusks sold for their supposed magical and healing powers. In reality, they were narwhal tusks from the Arctic seas, brought to Europe by explorers and sold for exorbitant prices.
Image credits: The Lady and the Unicorn, 1534-1540, Luca Longhi
Image credits: The Lady and the Unicorn, 1534-1540, Luca Longhi
The shells that enclosed the ocean
In the 17th century, naturalists believed that certain shells could trap the sound of the sea within them. Collectors held them to their ears to "listen" to distant oceans.
The candle that burned for eternity
By the late 1500s, alchemists claimed to have created "eternal candles": wicks that never burned out, fueled by secret formulas of phosphorus and mercury. While none of them truly lasted forever, these objects symbolized humanity's dream of capturing the eternal spark in matter.
Image Credits:
Human Candle By Gorche
Image Credits:
Human Candle By Gorche
Bezoar: the antidote to poisons
For centuries, considered the most powerful defense against poisons, bezoars were extracted from the stomachs of animals such as goats or antelopes and kept as precious relics. In reality, they are nothing more than a concretion of hair or plant matter that forms in the digestive tracts of many ruminants.
Kings and collectors mounted them in gold and silver, believing that simply immersing them in wine neutralized any toxin.
More than medicine, they were the symbol of an absolute faith in nature as a silent alchemist.
Image credit:
Bezoar from the Wellcome Collection, Science Museum, London.
Kings and collectors mounted them in gold and silver, believing that simply immersing them in wine neutralized any toxin.
More than medicine, they were the symbol of an absolute faith in nature as a silent alchemist.
Image credit:
Bezoar from the Wellcome Collection, Science Museum, London.
Roman Dodecahedra, the Perfect Mystery
Small bronze objects, geometric, perforated, and perfectly symmetrical: Roman dodecahedra have been found throughout Europe, but no ancient text explains their function. Astronomical instrument? Ritual object? Military caliber? Their perfection is mute, and precisely for this reason, disturbing: precise artifacts with no apparent purpose, like messages forgotten by an ancient logic.
Image credits -
Bronze dodecahedron, 4th-2nd century BC.
Besançon, Museum of Fine Arts and Archaeology
Image credits -
Bronze dodecahedron, 4th-2nd century BC.
Besançon, Museum of Fine Arts and Archaeology
The Fiji Mermaid
In the 19th century, some cabinets of curiosities and collections displayed a monstrous creature: a "mermaid" with a human torso and a fish's tail. In reality, it was a skillful fusion of a mummified monkey and dried fish, a masterpiece of optical illusion and colonial imagination.
Not just a fraud, but a testament to the porous boundary between scientific wonder and the desire to believe the impossible.
Image credits:
Horniman Merman, Heini Scheebeli
Not just a fraud, but a testament to the porous boundary between scientific wonder and the desire to believe the impossible.
Image credits:
Horniman Merman, Heini Scheebeli
The Blood of San Gennaro: A Miracle in a Vial
In Naples, three times a year, huge crowds witness an ancient phenomenon: the liquefaction of the blood of San Gennaro.
The substance, preserved in a sealed vial since the 14th century, changes from solid to liquid in an unpredictable manner.
Science speaks of thixotropic gels or suspensions of iron oxides; the faithful invoke the saint's intercession.
Whatever the truth, the rite remains one of the longest-running encounters between faith, tradition, and mystery in Europe.
Image credits:
Fabio Sasso / Agf - The miracle of San Gennaro
The substance, preserved in a sealed vial since the 14th century, changes from solid to liquid in an unpredictable manner.
Science speaks of thixotropic gels or suspensions of iron oxides; the faithful invoke the saint's intercession.
Whatever the truth, the rite remains one of the longest-running encounters between faith, tradition, and mystery in Europe.
Image credits:
Fabio Sasso / Agf - The miracle of San Gennaro
Tsantsas: The Shrunken Heads of the Jivaro
Among the Shuar and Achuar peoples of the Amazon, tsantsas—shrunken human heads—were not simple war trophies. They served to imprison the muisak, the avenging spirit of the enemy, preventing it from attacking the warrior's community. Crafted through a meticulous process of boiling, drying, and shaping with hot stones and sand, they were displayed only briefly and then hidden: their spiritual power was considered too dangerous to remain visible.
Image credit: Darwin & Wallace
Image credit: Darwin & Wallace
The Legend of the Tooth Worm: An Imagined Parasite
For centuries, in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, toothache was attributed to a tiny creature: the “tooth worm.” Physicians believed they could extract it using herbal fumes, metal instruments, or ritual formulas, and manuscripts depict a worm twisting inside the tooth. No such animal ever existed, yet the legend endured until the eighteenth century, showing how human imagination can populate the invisible when pain demands an explanation.
Image credits
Carved tooth, France, 18th century
Image credits
Carved tooth, France, 18th century
Ex Voto Paintings: Tributes to Divine Grace
From Italy to Mexico, painted votive offerings have transformed personal gratitude into public testimony. These small devotional panels—often naive, vivid, and intensely narrative—depict miracles, accidents averted, illnesses cured, or dangers narrowly avoided. A woman saved by lightning, a farmer escaping a rampaging bull, a child healed in a single night. Each votive offering is a tribute to the divine grace that granted miracles to ordinary people.
Image credits: La Rochelle slave ship Le saphir, Saint Louis Cathedral in La Rochelle, 1741
Image credits: La Rochelle slave ship Le saphir, Saint Louis Cathedral in La Rochelle, 1741
Danse Macabre: Death Leads the Dance
In late medieval Europe, a disturbing motif emerged: skeletons leading kings, bishops, peasants, and children in a procession without distinction of rank—the Danse Macabre. Painted on cloister walls, engraved in woodcuts, or staged as a spectacle, it reminded spectators of their inevitable equality in the face of death. Not only a macabre theme, but a moral reflection born amid plagues and social turmoil, where fear and irony coexisted under the same memento mori.
Image credit: French manuscript 995, Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Image credit: French manuscript 995, Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Kapala: the skull as a ritual instrument
In Tibetan Buddhist tradition, kapalas are ritual bowls carved from the upper part of a human skull. Used in tantric rituals, they had a symbolic, not a macabre, function: a reminder of the impermanence of life and the transformation of the ego. Often decorated with precious metals and sacred inscriptions, they were intended for ritual offerings of symbolic substances, such as fermented beverages or flour.
Image credit: Chiswick Auctions
Image credit: Chiswick Auctions
Golden Lotus: The Aesthetics of Deformation
For over a thousand years in China, the practice of footbinding transformed the feet of millions of women into what was called the "golden lotus."
The bones were intentionally broken and bound to achieve feet no longer than four inches. Considered a sign of beauty, social status, and discipline, this practice left permanent and painful consequences, becoming one of the most extreme symbols of aesthetics imposed on the female body.
Image credits - Photograph: Jo Farrell
The bones were intentionally broken and bound to achieve feet no longer than four inches. Considered a sign of beauty, social status, and discipline, this practice left permanent and painful consequences, becoming one of the most extreme symbols of aesthetics imposed on the female body.
Image credits - Photograph: Jo Farrell
Ivory and anatomy: the female body in miniature
Between the 17th and 19th centuries, small ivory anatomical models depicting pregnant women were produced in Europe as medical tools and collectibles. These foldable and carefully carved models showed fetuses at various stages of development, incredible artifacts halfway between science and art.
Image credit: Outsidesin
Image credit: Outsidesin
The spiciest thing in the world? It's not a chili pepper.
The world's spiciest natural substance is resiniferatoxin (RTX), found in the Euphorbia resinifera plant. Resiniferatoxin is considered the spiciest known substance: it reaches an estimated value of approximately 16 billion Scoville Heat Units, making it up to a thousand times more potent than capsaicin. Unlike chili peppers, it is not used in cooking: its interest is scientific and pharmacological.
Image credit:
indoor-plants.net
Image credit:
indoor-plants.net
"Silhouette" Portraits: The Profile of the Nineteenth Century
Before the spread of photography, silhouette portraits were one of the most affordable and popular ways to capture a person’s likeness. Widely practiced in Europe from the late 18th to the 19th century and especially common during the Victorian era, they were created by cutting the sitter’s profile from black paper or by tracing the shadow cast on a wall illuminated by candlelight. The term derives from the French finance minister Étienne de Silhouette, known for his austerity measures; because these portraits were inexpensive, they were humorously associated with his name.
Image Credits - Collection of 15 Victorian Silhouettes, Mid-19th Century England - The Old Cinema, London
Image Credits - Collection of 15 Victorian Silhouettes, Mid-19th Century England - The Old Cinema, London
The shells of the Xenophora
On the seabed, there's a creature that isn't content to simply inhabit a home: it builds it piece by piece. Species of the Xenophora genus collect shells, coral fragments, and stones and attach them to their shells, transforming it into an irregular, layered surface. A serial hoarder of the depths, a form of instinctive (and mimetic) collecting that makes each specimen unique, like a moving cabinet of curiosities.
Image credits: Wikipedia, James St. John
Image credits: Wikipedia, James St. John
The hidden bone: the oosik
Some mammals possess a bone that our species has lost: the baculum. Native Alaskans use the term Oosik to refer to the baculum of walruses, seals, sea lions, and polar bears.
The baculum of these large animals is collected, then polished and, in some cases, even carved to be resold to tourists.
The most sought-after are the fossil baculums, approximately 60 centimeters long, which are polished and used as handles for knives and other tools. They are very rare and expensive: in 2007, a fossil baculum belonging to an extinct walrus sold for approximately $8,000.
Image credit: bidsquare.com
The baculum of these large animals is collected, then polished and, in some cases, even carved to be resold to tourists.
The most sought-after are the fossil baculums, approximately 60 centimeters long, which are polished and used as handles for knives and other tools. They are very rare and expensive: in 2007, a fossil baculum belonging to an extinct walrus sold for approximately $8,000.
Image credit: bidsquare.com
Sculptures of time: the gogotte
At first glance, they appear to be hand-sculpted sculptures, but the Gogottes are the result of extremely slow natural processes. Formed millions of years ago in the sands of Fontainebleau, they were shaped by water and minerals to create soft, almost fluid surfaces.
Already prized in European aristocratic collections, they were exhibited as examples of "natural art," indistinguishable from abstract sculptures.
-Image credit: sothebys.com
Already prized in European aristocratic collections, they were exhibited as examples of "natural art," indistinguishable from abstract sculptures.
-Image credit: sothebys.com
Gold of the Sea: Byssus Fibers
Anchored to the seabed of the Mediterranean, the mollusk Pinna nobilis produces extremely fine filaments to attach itself to rocks. Once collected and processed, these threads become the so-called sea silk: a rare, golden, almost weightless fabric. For centuries it was used to create precious objects; today it has nearly disappeared, but some artisans continue to weave its magical fibers into wonderful works.
Image credits: Arianna Pintus
Image credits: Arianna Pintus
Lightning Glass: Fulgurites
When lightning strikes sand, something happens that lasts an instant but leaves a permanent mark. The heat melts the soil and creates branched glass structures called Fulgorites. Fragile and light, they look like roots or veins, but they are actually the fossilized form of an invisible event: the exact point where the sky touched the earth.
Image credit: Sotheby's
Image credit: Sotheby's
bottom of page