Josephine Giraldelli

Josephine Girardelli during one of her performances. Caricature from 1818 by Charles Williams. Now in the British Museum. Josephine Girardelli in an engraving by Robert Cooper from 1823. Josephine Girardelli (1780s – July 6, 1830) was an Italian circus performer and artist. She became famous under the nickname “incombustible lady” in the United Kingdom, demonstrating her resistance to heat in stage shows. She swallowed or exposed herself to red-hot objects and corrosive substances. Newspapers of the time also referred to her as the “Queen of the Fire Eaters.”

Life Girardelli was probably born in Italy in the 1780s, although she was sometimes called “the incombustible Spaniard, Señor Lionetto” and was at other times believed to be of German descent. In 1814, she performed in London multiple times a day in New Bond Street. In 1818, she appeared in Newcastle, having previously been in Edinburgh and Glasgow, before working her way down to the south of England.

Despite the sensation her performances caused, and the attention her tricks attracted from skeptics and other performers, it was never discovered during her lifetime how she managed not to burn herself in her acts. Girardelli herself claimed to use a "secret composition" applied to the skin that protected her from lasting injury. The scientists of the time however, rejected this possibility, since there was no substance capable of protecting the skin for any extended period against red-hot objects or open flames.

Performances

The performances typically began with Girardelli rinsing her mouth with a substance presented as nitric acid. After a few seconds, she spat the substance onto an iron plate, which began to corrode, in order to prove that it really was acid. She then took a pan of hot oil, fried an egg in it, and drank the hot oil or spat it out in flames to show the audience that it was indeed oil. In another act, a spectator was invited to imprint a letter with molten sealing wax from Girardelli's mouth.