Despite the significant role that midwives played in medieval society, surprisingly few studies have sought to discern who they were and what they did.
Mother, wife, temptress, virgin and tyrant: defining images of feminine power in medieval queenship and modern politics
September 5, 2011 By
Mother, wife, temptress, virgin and tyrant: defining images of feminine power in medieval queenship andmodern politics Curwen, Emma B.A. Thesis, Regis University, May (2009) Abstract The Queens of Anglo-Saxon England were restricted and defined by traditional gender expectations and images. Though these ideals are less rigid, gender roles and images of femininity still restrict women. Standards […]
Birgitta of Sweden and the Divine Mysteries of Motherhood
August 31, 2011 By
Birgitta of Sweden and the Divine Mysteries of Motherhood Stjerna, Kirsi Feminist Forum, 24, no. 1 (1997) Abstract St. Birgitta of Sweden is most widely known as the founder of her order Regula Sanctissimi Saluatoris and as the “author” of the Revelaciones S. Birgittae, the collection of her 700 revelations. Born in 1303 to one […]
Gender, religion and society : a study of women and convent life in coptic orthodox Egypt
August 31, 2011 By
Gender, religion and society : a study of women and convent life in coptic orthodox Egypt Jeppson, Karolina M.A. Cultural Anthropology Thesis,Uppsala University, May (2003) Abstract This study deals with the interrelations between gender, religion and society in the context of contemporary Coptic Orthodox Egypt, with a focus on Coptic nuns and convent life. In the […]
The Indexing Of Medieval Women: The Feminine Tradition Of Medical Wisdom In Anglo-Saxon England And The Metrical Charms
July 17, 2011 By
The Indexing Of Medieval Women: The Feminine Tradition Of Medical Wisdom In Anglo-Saxon England And The Metrical Charms Sanburn, Keri Elizabeth Master’s Thesis, Florida State University, June (2003) Abstract This thesis opens for speculation the idea, largely neglected in scholarly research to this date, that women were instrumental in creating and administering the basic and complex magical/medical […]
The Professionalization of Midwifery in the Late Middle Ages
March 14, 2011 By
The unique role of women who practiced as assign midwives is neglected in the historical record of the late Middle Ages.
Byzantine attitudes towards foetuses, newborn babies and infants: a multidisciplinary approach
March 1, 2011 By
Looking at hagiographies, histories, legal codes and examples of material culture, there is a substantial quantity of evidence which exposes Byzantine perceptions of the lived experience of infants too.
Capturing the Wandering Womb: Childbirth in Medieval Art
June 9, 2010 By
In the Middle Ages, the event of childbirth was a process witnessed and experienced almost exclusively by women, as the birthing chamber was the only secular space from which men were systematically absent.
A Case of Indifference? Child Murder in Later Medieval England
May 19, 2010 By
Infanticide was a felony in the Middle Ages and neither jurors nor royal officials treated child murder with indifference. Nevertheless, it is clear that both gender and marital status guided the courts in their decisions throughout the legal process in terms of indicting, prosecuting, and sentencing defendants in cases of child murder.
Advice Concerning Pregnancy and Health in Late Medieval Europe: Peasant Women’s Wisdom in The Distaff Gospels
January 25, 2010 By
![Credit: Wellcome Library, London Gynaecological texts, including information about conception, pregnancy and childbirth - Woman who died in childbirth on operating table, with doctor holding knife after delivering baby by Caesarean section, a nurse holding swaddled child Ink and Watercolour Circa 1420-30 From: MS 49, Apocalypse, (The), [etc.]. Apocalypsis S. Johannis cum glossis et Vita S. Johannis; Ars Moriendi, etc.; Anatomical, medical, texts, theological moral and allegorical 'exempla' and extracts, a few in verse.](http://www.medievalists.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/medieval-caesarean-section.jpg)
Of the more than 200 pieces of advice contained in The Distaff Gospels, a mid-15th-century Old French collection of women’s lore recently available for the first time in modern English, almost half concern aspects of health: pregnancy, predicting the sex of the foetus and ensuring the future wellbeing of the child, as well as practices to avoid sickness and cures for various ailments.
The Purification of Women after Childbirth: A Window onto Medieval Perceptions of Women
August 25, 2009 By
In the second quarter of the thirteenth century Bishop Roger Niger found it necessary to issue a statute in the archdeaconry of London regarding the rite known as the Purification of Women after Childbirth, more commonly spoken of today as churching.
Beliefs about Human Sexual Function in the Middle Ages and Renaissance
January 31, 2009 By
We want to examine the major beliefs about human sexual anatomy and fuction that prevailed during the Middle Ages and Renaissance and some of the medical practices that were related to these beliefs.
Medieval Women’s Guides to Food during Pregnancy: Origins, Texts and Traditions
November 28, 2008 By
The dietary guidelines contained in medieval Arabic, Latin, and vernacular pregnancy-regimens are analyzed and their origins explored.
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