{
 "schema": 1,
 "id": "caul",
 "type": "amulet",
 "names": {
  "name": "Caul",
  "said": "KAWL",
  "aliases": [
   "silly hood",
   "veil",
   "born in a shirt",
   "né coiffé",
   "nato con la camicia",
   "w czepku urodzony"
  ]
 },
 "region": [
  "britain-ireland",
  "western-europe",
  "rome-italy",
  "baltic-slavic",
  "balkans",
  "caribbean"
 ],
 "countries": [
  "GB",
  "NL",
  "FR",
  "IT",
  "PL",
  "RU",
  "RO",
  "JM"
 ],
 "facets": {
  "era": "medieval",
  "status": "dormant",
  "portable": "carried",
  "restricted": "open",
  "hemisphere": [
   "N",
   "W",
   "E"
  ]
 },
 "text": {
  "what": "A piece of birth membrane that comes away with a newborn and clings to the head and face — usually the thin translucent inner lining, the amnion. The midwife lifts it off, presses it onto a sheet of paper, and it dries there. That sheet is the amulet. Birth with a caul occurs in fewer than one in 80,000 births, a figure that includes en-caul births, in which the whole infant is delivered inside the intact sac.",
  "story": "In medieval Europe a caul on a newborn was read as good luck and as an omen that the child was destined for greatness, and gathering the caul onto paper was an important part of the birth: the midwife rubbed a sheet across the baby's head and face and presented the result to the mother, to be kept as an heirloom. Some early modern European traditions connected caul birth to the power to defend fertility and the harvest against witches and sorcerers — the benandanti of Friuli are the named example.\n\nThe caul's main career was at sea. Folklore held that possessing a baby's caul brought its bearer luck and protected them from death by drowning, and cauls were therefore prized by sailors. Medieval women sold them to sailors for large sums; a caul counted as a valuable talisman. Charles Dickens opened David Copperfield in 1850 with the narrator's own: \"I was born with a caul, which was advertised for sale, in the newspapers, at the low price of fifteen guineas.\" Copperfield then follows the thing through a decade of resale and raffle. Fifteen guineas is a price in a novel, printed in 1850, and this record quotes it as that and not as a market rate.\n\nThe idioms carried the belief further than the objects did. Polish w czepku urodzony, 'born in a bonnet'; Italian nato con la camicia, 'born with a shirt'; French né coiffé, 'born with a hat on'; Russian родился в рубашке, 'born in a shirt' — all of them mean someone who is very lucky, and the Russian phrase is still applied to people who walk away from disasters, as if the caul persisted as armour.\n\nNot every tradition reads it as good. In Romanian folklore babies born with a caul are said to become strigoi on death. In England the same birth was also read as the mark of someone destined to hang, on the proverb that he who is born to be hanged will never drown. In Jamaican folklore duppies are powerless against a person born with a caul. The 16th-century Dutch physician Levinus Lemnius, who wrote The Secret Miracles of Nature, was unconvinced by the claims made for preserved cauls; the 19th-century comic writer Thomas Hood ended his poem \"The Sea-Spell\" with a drowning sailor's charm failing him.",
  "how": "Not made and not chosen. The midwife, physician or parent removes the membrane at birth and presses it onto paper; a thicker chorionic caul has to be cut across the nostrils so the child can breathe and then eased off, and taken too fast it leaves scars. The dried sheet is kept in the family, given to the child, sold, or inherited. There is no rite over it.",
  "today": "Not a living trade. Cauls are still removed at birth, as a medical routine, and research in the 2020s has found that delivering severely premature infants with the caul intact can improve their chances, which is a use of the membrane with nothing folkloric in it. *Inference —* what remains of the amulet is the language: the Russian, Polish, Italian and French idioms for a lucky person are still in everyday use by speakers who have never seen one."
 },
 "dating": {
  "period": "Medieval to the twentieth century",
  "from_year": 1000,
  "to_year": 1999,
  "living": false,
  "label": "medieval to the 20th century",
  "method": "textual",
  "circa": true,
  "tier": "tradition",
  "source": "s:wp-caul",
  "note": "The source says the belief was current in medieval times and that belief in cauls as omens persisted well into the twentieth century, without giving years at either end; the round numbers here are this record's brackets on those two phrases. The earliest thing named is the Historia Augusta's account of Diadumenian (208–218), which the source itself calls unreliable, so it is not used to date the field."
 },
 "object": {
  "form": "folded-paper",
  "materials": [
   "skin",
   "paper"
  ],
  "worn": [
   "pocket",
   "boat"
  ],
  "made_by": "the midwife, physician or parent attending the birth",
  "inscription": "",
  "colour": [
   "translucent",
   "yellow"
  ],
  "single_use": false,
  "source": "s:wp-caul",
  "note": "The object as kept is a sheet of paper with the dried membrane pressed onto it. Skin is the nearest key in this atlas's material list for the membrane itself."
 },
 "against": [
  {
   "harm": "drowning",
   "who": "sailors, who bought them from the women who had them, and for whom this was the caul's main claim",
   "source": "s:wp-caul",
   "tier": "cited"
  },
  {
   "harm": "bad-luck",
   "who": "Polish, Italian, French and Russian speakers, whose everyday idioms for a lucky person all mean born in a caul",
   "source": "s:wp-caul",
   "tier": "cited"
  },
  {
   "harm": "witchcraft",
   "who": "some early modern European traditions, which linked caul birth to defending fertility and the harvest against witches and sorcerers such as the benandanti",
   "source": "s:wp-caul",
   "tier": "cited"
  },
  {
   "harm": "spirits",
   "who": "Jamaican folklore, in which duppies cannot harm a person born with a caul",
   "source": "s:wp-caul",
   "tier": "cited"
  }
 ],
 "kin": [
  {
   "to": "st-christopher-medal",
   "as": "the other charm a European traveller carried against drowning, and the one you could buy rather than be born with",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "hei-matau",
   "as": "the charm carried for safe passage over water at the other end of the world",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "inheriting",
   "as": "the practice that kept these — a caul is handed down, or sold, never made",
   "rel": "practice"
  },
  {
   "to": "skin",
   "as": "what it is, and the reason so few survive",
   "rel": "material"
  },
  {
   "to": "paper",
   "as": "what it is pressed onto and what a museum actually holds",
   "rel": "material"
  },
  {
   "to": "buying-in-a-market",
   "as": "the trade this object had: advertised in newspapers, raffled, sold to sailors for large sums",
   "rel": "practice"
  },
  {
   "to": "european-folk-apotropaic",
   "as": "the tradition it belongs to, and its one charm nobody can choose to acquire",
   "rel": "tradition"
  },
  {
   "to": "most-of-them-are-for-children",
   "as": "the long read it complicates: this charm comes off a child and is then carried by adults",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "to": "amulet-word",
   "as": "the word the sources reach for here, alongside talisman, for an object that is a body part and an omen at once",
   "rel": "term"
  }
 ],
 "links": [
  {
   "label": "Caul — Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caul"
  }
 ],
 "sources": [
  "s:wp-caul",
  "s:wp-amulet",
  "s:wp-luck"
 ],
 "provenance": {
  "default": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-caul"
  },
  "fields": {
   "dating": {
    "tier": "tradition",
    "source": "s:wp-caul",
    "note": "brackets placed on the source's two undated phrases; the field's note says so"
   },
   "text.today": {
    "tier": "inference",
    "note": "the closing observation about surviving idioms is this project's, and the medical finding beside it is cited"
   }
  }
 },
 "images": [],
 "confidence": "medium",
 "needs_verification": true,
 "updated": "2026-09-16",
 "blurb": "A piece of birth membrane that comes away with a newborn and clings to the head and face — usually the thin translucent inner lining, the amnion.",
 "region_terms": [
  {
   "key": "britain-ireland",
   "name": "Britain and Ireland",
   "hemi": [
    "N",
    "W"
   ]
  },
  {
   "key": "western-europe",
   "name": "Western Europe",
   "hemi": [
    "N",
    "W",
    "E"
   ]
  },
  {
   "key": "rome-italy",
   "name": "Rome and Italy",
   "hemi": [
    "N",
    "E"
   ]
  },
  {
   "key": "baltic-slavic",
   "name": "The Baltic and the Slavic lands",
   "hemi": [
    "N",
    "E"
   ]
  },
  {
   "key": "balkans",
   "name": "The Balkans",
   "hemi": [
    "N",
    "E"
   ]
  },
  {
   "key": "caribbean",
   "name": "The Caribbean",
   "hemi": [
    "N",
    "W"
   ]
  }
 ],
 "hemispheres": [
  "E",
  "N",
  "W"
 ],
 "kin_out": [
  {
   "to": "st-christopher-medal",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "St Christopher medal",
   "as": "the other charm a European traveller carried against drowning, and the one you could buy rather than be born with",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "hei-matau",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Hei matau",
   "as": "the charm carried for safe passage over water at the other end of the world",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "inheriting",
   "type": "practice",
   "name": "Inheriting",
   "as": "the practice that kept these — a caul is handed down, or sold, never made",
   "rel": "practice"
  },
  {
   "to": "skin",
   "type": "material",
   "name": "Skin",
   "as": "what it is, and the reason so few survive",
   "rel": "material"
  },
  {
   "to": "paper",
   "type": "material",
   "name": "Paper",
   "as": "what it is pressed onto and what a museum actually holds",
   "rel": "material"
  },
  {
   "to": "buying-in-a-market",
   "type": "practice",
   "name": "Buying one in a market",
   "as": "the trade this object had: advertised in newspapers, raffled, sold to sailors for large sums",
   "rel": "practice"
  },
  {
   "to": "european-folk-apotropaic",
   "type": "tradition",
   "name": "European folk apotropaic craft",
   "as": "the tradition it belongs to, and its one charm nobody can choose to acquire",
   "rel": "tradition"
  },
  {
   "to": "most-of-them-are-for-children",
   "type": "story",
   "name": "Most of them are for children",
   "as": "the long read it complicates: this charm comes off a child and is then carried by adults",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "to": "amulet-word",
   "type": "term",
   "name": "amulet",
   "as": "the word the sources reach for here, alongside talisman, for an object that is a body part and an omen at once",
   "rel": "term"
  }
 ],
 "source_list": [
  {
   "id": "s:wp-caul",
   "kind": "encyclopedia",
   "title": "Caul",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caul",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:wp-amulet",
   "kind": "encyclopedia",
   "title": "Amulet",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amulet",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:wp-luck",
   "kind": "encyclopedia",
   "title": "Luck",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luck",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  }
 ],
 "tiers": {
  "text.what": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-caul"
  },
  "text.story": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-caul"
  },
  "text.how": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-caul"
  },
  "text.today": {
   "tier": "inference",
   "note": "the closing observation about surviving idioms is this project's, and the medical finding beside it is cited"
  },
  "dating": {
   "tier": "tradition",
   "source": "s:wp-caul",
   "note": "brackets placed on the source's two undated phrases; the field's note says so"
  },
  "object": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-caul"
  }
 },
 "primary_image": null,
 "tag_facts": [],
 "recognition_facts": [],
 "acclaim": 0,
 "against_facts": [
  {
   "key": "drowning",
   "label": "Drowning and storm at sea",
   "who": "sailors, who bought them from the women who had them, and for whom this was the caul's main claim",
   "quote": "",
   "source": "s:wp-caul",
   "tier": "cited",
   "note": ""
  },
  {
   "key": "bad-luck",
   "label": "Bad luck, unspecified",
   "who": "Polish, Italian, French and Russian speakers, whose everyday idioms for a lucky person all mean born in a caul",
   "quote": "",
   "source": "s:wp-caul",
   "tier": "cited",
   "note": ""
  },
  {
   "key": "witchcraft",
   "label": "Another person's sorcery",
   "who": "some early modern European traditions, which linked caul birth to defending fertility and the harvest against witches and sorcerers such as the benandanti",
   "quote": "",
   "source": "s:wp-caul",
   "tier": "cited",
   "note": ""
  },
  {
   "key": "spirits",
   "label": "Ghosts and hungry spirits",
   "who": "Jamaican folklore, in which duppies cannot harm a person born with a caul",
   "quote": "",
   "source": "s:wp-caul",
   "tier": "cited",
   "note": ""
  }
 ],
 "material_facts": [
  {
   "key": "skin",
   "label": "Skin",
   "kind": "organic",
   "note": "the tattooed charm"
  },
  {
   "key": "paper",
   "label": "Paper",
   "kind": "written"
  }
 ],
 "worn_facts": [
  {
   "key": "pocket",
   "label": "In a pocket or a bag",
   "group": "carried"
  },
  {
   "key": "boat",
   "label": "On a boat",
   "group": "placed"
  }
 ],
 "form_fact": {
  "key": "folded-paper",
  "label": "Folded paper"
 },
 "holding_facts": [],
 "span": "1000 CE – 1999 CE",
 "country_names": [
  {
   "iso": "GB",
   "name": "United Kingdom"
  },
  {
   "iso": "NL",
   "name": "Netherlands"
  },
  {
   "iso": "FR",
   "name": "France"
  },
  {
   "iso": "IT",
   "name": "Italy"
  },
  {
   "iso": "PL",
   "name": "Poland"
  },
  {
   "iso": "RU",
   "name": "Russia"
  },
  {
   "iso": "RO",
   "name": "Romania"
  },
  {
   "iso": "JM",
   "name": "Jamaica"
  }
 ],
 "kin_in": [
  {
   "from": "european-folk-apotropaic",
   "type": "tradition",
   "name": "European folk apotropaic craft",
   "as": "its one charm nobody can choose to acquire, and the one with a documented resale market",
   "rel": "carries"
  },
  {
   "from": "wellcome-lovett",
   "type": "place",
   "name": "The Lovett charms at Wellcome Collection",
   "as": "the birth membrane Lovett recorded in the hands of London sailors' families, bought against drowning",
   "rel": "carries"
  },
  {
   "from": "edward-lovett",
   "type": "person",
   "name": "Edward Lovett",
   "as": "one of the objects he recorded in the hands of London sailors' families rather than in a book",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "from": "lovett-collection",
   "type": "art",
   "name": "The Lovett collection",
   "as": "one of the classes he collected in quantity from London sailors and their families",
   "rel": "carries"
  }
 ]
}