Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index



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  • Title: The Birth of Julius Caesar (Les Faits des Romains)
  • Creator:
  • Description: This manuscript page shows the birth of Julius Caesar by Caesarean section. The atmosphere of this scene is different from a modest and peaceful Nativity. The illustration does not idealize childbirth, but rather depicts it as a grueling and gruesome medical process. It also expresses in visual terms through the figure of Julius Caesar’s mother the very real danger Caesarean childbirth posed for the woman in labor and the high probability of her death during the surgery. It is clear to the viewer that Caesar’s mother is deceased because her eyes are closed, and there is a disturbingly blank expression on her face despite the fact that she has a cavernous, red hole in her stomach and lies naked and stretched out on a couch. The operation is over, and an old midwife pulls a healthy, curly haired Julius Caesar from the cavity in his mother’s womb. Meanwhile another midwife pours water into a basin near the deceased mother’s feet, possibly either to wash blood off her hands or to clean the newborn baby. The designs of the drapes in the background and of the low couch the mother lies on are intentionally simple in order to emphasize the dramatic birth scene. Caesarean birth was promoted by the Church beginning in the late thirteenth century in order to ensure the salvation of infant souls. Midwives, as well as lay people in general, were instructed to "cut out" living infants when mothers died in childbirth and baptize them immediately.
  • Source: British Library
  • Rights: Public Domain
  • Subject (See Also): Caesarean Birth Childbirth Gynecology Infants Midwives Mothers Surgery
  • Geographic Area: France
  • Century: 14
  • Date: Last quarter of 14th century
  • Related Work: Les anciennes hystoires rommaines: http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=8468&CollID=16&NStart=160707
  • Current Location: London, British Library, Royal 16 G VII f. 219r
  • Original Location: France, Central (Paris)
  • Artistic Type (Category): Digital Images; Manuscript illuminations
  • Artistic Type (Material/Technique): Vellum (parchment); Paint
  • Donor:
  • Height/Width/Length(cm): 41 cm/27.5 cm/
  • Inscription:
  • Related Resources: Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Not of Woman Born: Representations of Caesarean Birth in Medieval and Renaissance Culture, Cornell University Press, Ithica, New York, 1990, pgs. 63-71