2025/11/17 by Green, Monica H. · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · #Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes #History of Medicine Studies #Medieval Literature and History
paper · doi:10.17613/ftbxn-s9h37
openalex publication_date 2025/11/17 · openalex created_date 2025/11/18 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/01
In late 11th and 12th century southern Italy, there was a brief profusion of interest in women's health that led to a cluster of new writings. Some carried forward teachings from ancient authors. Another, produced ad hoc in several stages, adapted Arabic traditions. Yet another was the work of a local female author, Trota of Salerno, whose views give us special access to medical thinking and practices on the edge of literate traditions. Several of these texts went on to dominate European traditions of medicine for most of the Middle Ages, both in their original Latin and in vernacular translations. Attitudes toward menstruation, as well as the language and basic medical conceptions of female physiological processes, were of course embedded in these texts. Menstruation was seen within a continuum of normal fluxes from the female body that, when in balance, were a gauge of health and fertility. However, because menstruation ceased not only with pregnancy and lactation (both healthy cessations) but also due to health imbalances, interventions were needed. Menstruation was, therefore, both in its presence and its absence, a signifier. Contrasting the views of Trota of Salerno with those of contemporary male authors creates an opportunity to see Mediterranean conceptions of female physiology with new eyes. This document presents the bibliography on which the talk is based.