Published: 2023-12-29

“With painful labor you will give birth to children” – Taddeo Alderotti, Aldobrandino of Siena, Michael Savonarola and Others on Infertility, Pregnancy, and Childbirth in the Middle Ages

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Abstract

The medieval medical treatises that have survived to the present day generally contain little information about topics that can be called strictly gynecological-obstetric, which causes us to believe that such topics were of no great interest to medieval authors. Rare are medieval works that exclusively and in detail treat of infertility, pregnancy, and childbirth. In her article, Anna Głusiuk examines selected medical treatises whose authors’ treatment of these subjects exceeds several brief sentences. The works of Rhazes, Trota of Salerno, Constantine the African, Aldebrandin of Siena, Taddeo Alderotti, Gentile da Foligno, and Michael Savonarola are invaluable sources of information in that they reveal the state of medical knowledge in the Middle Ages related to, among other topics, infertility, pregnancy, and childbirth. In her analysis, Głusiuk emphasizes that some of them are compilations of earlier works, while others, despite containing numerous references to existing treatises, bring in many new contributions of their authors in the forms of insights, observations, and reflections.

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Citation rules

Głusiuk, A. (2023). “With painful labor you will give birth to children” – Taddeo Alderotti, Aldobrandino of Siena, Michael Savonarola and Others on Infertility, Pregnancy, and Childbirth in the Middle Ages. Średniowiecze Polskie I Powszechne, 15, 77–97. https://doi.org/10.31261/SPiP.2023.19.01

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Vol. 15 (2023)
Published: 2023-12-31


ISSN: 2080-492X
eISSN: 2353-9720

Publisher
Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego | University of Silesia Press

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