All Renaissance physicians believed that a woman's body was strongly influenced by the womb (or uterus), an organ considered to have exceptional sensitivity. Unlike the liver, heart, etc. the womb was known to have the ability to shift position, rising up and falling back. It was believed that unpleasant influences caused particular movements, leading to the mental and physical state known as hysteria. In order to tame the wandering womb and drive it back down to its rightful position lower in the body, the woman might be required to breathe unpleasant smells while sweet fumigations were applied to the vagina. The unpleasant discharges from the womb were also held responsible for many maladies, including the retention or corruption of the female seed and of menstrual blood. For anatomists like Vesalius or Charles Estienne, the uterus merits close study. Anatomical illustrations of the womb may sometimes also evoke images of female beauty, as in later (1580) editions of the work of Jakob Rueff.
Pour tous les médecins de la Renaissance, c'est la matrice (ou l'utérus) qui règle le corps féminin. Cet organe est considéré d'une sensibilité extrême. A l'encontre du foie, du coeur, etc., la matrice se meut librement, surtout lorsqu'elle est irritée, et on la croit donc responsable de bon nombre des maladies de la femme, notamment de l'hystérie. Afin de ramener dans sa position naturelle cet organe migrateur, on fait respirer aux "hystériques" des odeurs nauséabondes tout en appliquant des fumigations appétisantes dans le vagin...
La substance vénéneuse qu'elle est capable de degager peut également entraîner maints désordres, dont la retention ou la corruption de la semence féminine et des menstrues.
Pour les anatomistes, tels Vésale ou Charles Estienne, l'utérus est un organe qui mérite une étude approfondie. Parfois, les planches qui exposent la matrice ne manquent pas d'évoquer la beauté féminine, comme c'est le cas dans des éditions ultérieures (en 1580) du traité d'obstétrique de Jakob Rueff.
Some critical studiesQuelques études critiques:
Berriot-Salvadore, E., Un Corps, un destin. La femme dans la médecine de la Renaissance, Paris, 1993.
Blumenfeld-Kosinski, R., Not of Woman Born. Representations of caesarean birth in Medieval and Renaissance culture, Ithaca New York , 1990.
Darmon, P., Le Mythe de la procréation à l'âge baroque, Paris, 1981.
Daston, L., and Park, K., Wonders and the Orders of Nature 1515-1750, New York, 1998.
Gélis, J., L'Arbre et le fruit. La naissance dans l'occident moderne XVI e -XIX e siècle , Paris, 1984.
Green, M., Women's Healthcare in the Medieval West : Texts and Contexts, Aldershot, 2002.
King, H., Midwifery, obstetrics and gynaecology: the uses of a sixteenth-century compendium, Aldershot, 2007.
King, H., Hippocrates' Woman. Reading the female body in Ancient Greece, London, 1998.
Laurent, S., Naître au Moyen Age. De la conception à la naissance : la grossesse et l'accouchement, Paris, 1989.
Park, K., The Secrets of Women: gender, generation, and the origins of human dissection, New York, 2006.
Pinto-Correia, E., , The Ovary of Eve. Egg and sperm and preformation, Chicago and London, 1997.
Tucker, H., Pregnant Fictions : Childbirth and the Fairytale in Early Modern France, Detroit, 2003.
Observations by the Queen’s midwife on births she presided (1609-1617-1626)Les observations de la sage-femme de la Reine sur les accouchements qu’elle a présidés (1609-1617-1626)
Difficult births described by a famous French physician, botanist and translator (1610 re-edition)Des naissances difficiles décrites dans les annotations d’un médecin, botaniste et traducteur célèbre (réédition de 1610)
A Doctor from Dieppe Relates an Aborted Birth and Successful Caesarean Operation (1622)Un médecin dieppois raconte une naissance avortée et une opération césarienne (1622)
The author of several medical compilations records a number of remarkable births (1582)
L’auteur de plusieurs compilations médicales raconte quelques naissances remarquables (1582)
The surgeon Ambroise Paré advises on difficult deliveries (1549)Ambroise Paré fournit aux jeunes chirurgiens des conseils pour extraire un foetus (1549)
A provincial doctor relates an aborted and monstrously delayed birth (1582)Un médecin provincial raconte une naissance avortée et monstrueusement retardée (1582)
A famous anatomist recounts the uncovering of several exceptional pregnancies (1629)
Un anatomiste célèbre raconte plusieurs grossesses exceptionnelles (1629)
All Renaissance physicians believed that a woman's body was strongly influenced by the womb (or uterus), an organ considered to have exceptional sensitivity. Unlike the liver, heart, etc. the womb was known to have the ability to shift position, rising up and falling back. It was believed that unpleasant influences caused particular movements, leading to the mental and physical state known as hysteria. In order to tame the wandering womb and drive it back down to its rightful position lower in the body, the woman might be required to breathe unpleasant smells while sweet fumigations were applied to the vagina. The unpleasant discharges from the womb were also held responsible for many maladies, including the retention or corruption of the female seed and of menstrual blood. For anatomists like Vesalius or Charles Estienne, the uterus merits close study. Anatomical illustrations of the womb may sometimes also evoke images of female beauty, as in later (1580) editions of the work of Jakob Rueff.