Illustration of a caul by Cornelius Gemma, 16th Century. Image @WellcomeCollection

CW: Second image in this thread is a modern photograph of a newborn with a caul in a medical setting where a small amount of blood is visible.

A caul is a piece of membrane that covers a newborn's head and face. An 'en-caul' birth is when the infant is delivered inside the entire intact amniotic sac. The first instance is rare, the second extremely. A caul covering is harmless and is immediately removed by the midwife.

In folklore the presence of a caul has given rise to many different interpretations.

According to Aelius Lampridius, the Roman boy-emperor Diadumenian (208–218) was so named because he was born with a diadem (crown) formed by a rolled caul.

Likewise in Medieval Europe a caul was was considered an omen that the child was destined for greatness. Some pre-Christian European traditions linked caul birth to fertility and its presence in a spring birth presaged the harvest would be plentiful

and protected against the interference of witches.

Many languages possess an idiom about caul births: in Polish the saying is 'w czepku urodzony/a' ('born in a bonnet'), and, in Italian, 'nato/a con la camicia/a' ('born with a shirt'). Both mean a person who is always very lucky

As such it became an important duty of any midwife to preserve the caul by pressing a sheet of paper across the baby's face so that it could be kept as an heirloom. In turn this developed into the belief that possession of a baby's caul would give its bearer good luck

and protect that person from death by drowning. Cauls were therefore highly prized by sailors as taslimans. Medieval women often sold these cauls to sailors for large sums of money.

Not all cultural beliefs about cauls are positive.

In Romanian folklore, babies born with a caul are said to become strigois upon death. Strigois are troubled spirits attributed with the abilities to transform into a animals, become invisible, and to gain vitality from the blood of their victims.

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