Forensic Science Timeline: The Renaissance to Early Modern Era (1500 AD to 1800 AD)

The Bamberg Code in Germany mandated the presentation of medical evidence in all cases of violent death, providing a legal basis for forensic medicine and influencing modern coronial systems.

Issued by Emperor Charles V, this penal code extended the Bamberg Code, standardizing criminal laws across the Holy Roman Empire. It required expert medical testimony in violent death investigations.

French surgeon Ambroise Paré published Reports in Court, the first systematic treatise on legal medicine. This work laid the foundation for integrating medical knowledge into legal processes.

Zacharias Janssen, with his father Hans, designed the first compound microscope. Though rudimentary, it paved the way for scientific advancements in forensic microscopy.

Fortunatus Fidelis, an Italian doctor, published a comprehensive four-volume treatise on forensic medicine. He is considered the first to apply medical knowledge systematically to legal questions.

French colonists performed autopsies on St. Croix Island to investigate deaths during a harsh winter, marking the introduction of forensic pathology in North America.

François Demelle of France published a systematic treatise on document examination, laying the groundwork for modern forensic document analysis.

The University of Leipzig introduced the first systematic course of lectures on legal medicine, further institutionalizing the field in academic settings.

English physician Sir Thomas Browne identified adipocere, a waxy substance derived from decayed corpses, marking a significant discovery in forensic taphonomy.

Antony van Leeuwenhoek designed high-powered single-lens microscopes capable of magnifying up to 270x. He was the first to observe red blood cells, bacteria, and protozoa, revolutionizing forensic science.

• 1684: Dr. Nehemiah Grew published the first European observations on friction ridge skin.
• 1685: Govard Bidloo described fingerprint details in Anatomy of the Human Body.
• 1686: Marcello Malpighi noted fingerprint patterns (loops and whorls) in his treatise.

These studies laid the groundwork for modern fingerprint identification but did not yet recognize their uniqueness or permanence.

Giovanni Morgagni systematically correlated autopsy findings to disease symptoms, creating the foundation for modern forensic pathology and advancing medical diagnostics.

A British bullet struck down Warren during the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, and his corpse was buried in a mass grave. Paul Revere recognizes dentures he had made for his friend Dr. Joseph Warren and thus identifies the doctor’s body in a mass grave at Bunker Hill.

Karl Wilhelm Scheele (1742–1786) devised the first test for arsenic in corpses. Karl Scheele realized he could transform arsenious oxide into arsenious acid, which produced arsine when combined with zinc. This discovery later played a significant part in the forensic detection of arsenic.

The first medicolegal Journal, The Magazine fur die gerichtliche Arzeneikunde und medicinishe Polizei, was published in Berlin in 1782, by Konrad Friedsrich Uden.

In Lancaster, England, John Toms was convicted of murder based on the torn edge of a wad of newspaper in a pistol matching a remaining piece in his pocket. This was one of the first known documented uses of physical matching.

1787: Johann Metzger (1739–1805) develops a method for isolating arsenic. He showed that if arsenic were heated with charcoal, a shiny, black “arsenic mirror” would form on the charcoal’s surface. 

French chemist and Politician Antoine Francois Fourcroy (1755-1809), while examining disinterred bodies from Cimitiere des Innocence (Cemetery of Innocent) in Paris in 1987, observed that some bodies buried for a long time were transformed into fatty matter. He called this phenomenon adipocere.

In 1789, he read a paper on that subject before the French Academy of Sciences. Later, Antoine Francois Fourcroy and Michel Augustin Thouret made the crucial finding that adipocere is chemically similar to soap.

François-Emmanuel Fodéré (1764–1835) publishes Treatise on Legal Medicine and Public Hygiene or Health Policy (Traité de médecine légale et d’hygiène publique). This six-volume treatise was a standard work of legal medicine in France during the early 19th century. This book marked a new era of legal medicine in France and the advancement of the whole field. It became widely known outside of France and established Fodere as an international authority.