Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 13317
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Green , Monica H.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Obstetrical and Gynecological Texts in Middle English [The author complies a list of Middle English manuscripts that contain different texts on childbirth, women’s health, sexuality, and cosmetics. Some of the manuscripts also contain medicinal and culinary recipes. Many of the medical complications are attributed to the female healer Trota (or Trotula) of Salerno, but others are attributed to male authors like Galen and Hippocrates. Although the Trotula texts were popular in late medieval England, the manuscripts indicate that the most widely disseminated medical text was “The Sekeness of Wymmen” by Gilbertus Anglicus. The textual and codicological evidence of these manuscripts suggests that both men and women (and both physicians and laypersons) possessed and read these texts. The author describes each manuscript and lists its contents, and the appendix transcribes a new manuscript (the Middle English "Nature of Wommen") that has never been described. Originally published in Studies in the Age of Chaucer 14 (1992): 53-88. Title note supplied by Feminae.]
  • Source: 2000. Originally published in Studies in the Age of Chaucer 14 (1992): 53-88.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Edition of Text;Essay
  • Subject (See Also): Childbirth Gilbertus Anglicus, Physician- Sekeness of Wymmen Gynecology Medical Manuscripts Medicine Middle English Language Readers Translation Trotula, Medical Compilation
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: British Isles
  • Century: 14- 15- 16
  • Primary Evidence: Manuscript; London, British Library, MS Egerton 827, fols. 28v-30v (latest foliation). Written in the fourteenth century in a textura semi-quadrata hand. The appendix transcribes “The Nature of Women,” a medical treatise that appears in this manuscript;it concerns fe
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  • Year of Publication: 2000.
  • Language: English;Middle English
  • ISSN/ISBN: Not Available