Secrets of Women: Gender, Generation, and the Origins of Human Dissection

by Katharine Park

Toward the end of the Middle Ages, medical writers and philosophers began to devote increasing attention to what they called “women’s secrets,” by which they meant female sexuality and generation. At the same time, Italian physicians and surgeons began to open human bodies in order to study their functions and the illnesses that afflicted them, culminating in the great illustrated anatomical treatise of Andreas Vesalius, in 1543.

Katharine Park traces these two closely related developments through a series of case studies of women whose bodies were dissected after their an abbess, a lactating virgin, several patrician wives and mothers, and an executed criminal. Drawing on texts and images, she explores the history of women’s bodies in Italy between the late thirteenth and the mid-sixteenth centuries in the context of family identity, religious observance, and women’s health care.

Secrets of Women explodes the myth that medieval religious prohibitions hindered the practice of human dissection in medieval and Renaissance Italy, arguing that female bodies, real and imagined, played a central role in the history of anatomy during that time. The opened corpses of holy women revealed sacred objects, while the opened corpses of wives and mothers yielded crucial information about where babies came from and about the forces that shaped their vulnerable flesh.

In the process, what male writers knew as the “secrets of women” came to symbolize the most difficult challenges posed by human bodies ― challenges that dissection promised to overcome. Thus Park demonstrates the centrality of gender to the development of early modern anatomy through a study of women’s bodies and men’s attempts to know them and, through them, to know their own.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Medieval, Science, History Of Science, Gender, Medical

424 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Adriana Gogioiu]

Really resonated with me. Reading about these women- saints, Florentine wives, criminals- and the ways their bodies (corpses) were seen/used at various times as the “keys” to the final/ultimate anatomical secrets, and the ways that paranoia surrounding those “secrets” began and evolved, was in some ways incredibly liberating for me. Idk understanding the past helps me understand my own place in the world aS a WoMaN- don’t cringe please and thank you 🙏

[Meggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interessant om autopsies vanuit een heel ander perspectief te onderzoeken - gelezen voor studie

[Jam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genuinely interesting read. The book is about the dissection, post-mortems and anatmony studies of women in medieval Italy.

It goes in to specifics - women who were (at their own request) post-mortemed to determine if they had a disease which their children might need to be treated for, looking for proof of sainthood in religious women as well as actually trying to figure out what goes on in there. Interestingly, religion and the fact that female saints or holy women went hand in hand with these women's secrets. Some of these autopsies were looking for proof of divinity -the mark of Christ on the heart, proof that the virgin lactated, proof that the penitent ate nothing but wafers. And sometimes they found it, by their standards. The writer ties that in with the contrast between holy men and their external manifestations (healing, flying, stigmata, etc.) and holy women's tendency to internal manifestations (visions, relgious ecstasy, etc.)

Along with this, there's a healthy dose of the view of women and "women's secrets", changes in perception, changes in medical methodology from an emphasis on clasical learning to actually seeing with your own eyes.

Al interesting stuff, though by far the best bits are the illustrations. Some of the anatomical pictures were based on pre-existing beliefs about the womb, some based on anatomy studies. Some almost pornographic and some with classical Venus style poses.

Definitely worth reading, though it left me wondering what was going on outside of Italy and its religious traditions.

[Heather Richardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this book is aimed at an academic audience, I found it accessible and readable. It comprises five big chapters, and the first three were the most interesting - all about the history of the dissection of women, primarily 'holy' women in the 13th-15th Centuries in Italy. I was surprised to find out that such dissections were common as part of the embalming process, and often used a means of proving the holiness of the women. There were all manner of strange claims about objects found in the internal organs of of these candidates for sainthood - miniature crucifixes in the heart of one, gallstones imprinted with holy images in the gall bladder of another. A good read if you're interested in that alien land they call the past.

[Lucy Barnhouse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lucid, nuanced, and yes, exciting, this is that rare thing, a scholarly history that is also a page-turner. Park's source material is rich, and her treatment of it is sensitive, as she uses court cases, personal memoirs, saints' lives, and anatomical illustrations to shed light on a little-known subject, and dismantle a few myths about the later Middle Ages while she's about it. Of potential interest to historians of medicine, gender, and religion (and not too burdensome for the general reader, or an upper-level undergraduate class.)

[Anhhuy Do · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such fascinating scholarship on medieval human dissection and what implications it has for gender history, religious history, and the history of medicine. The incorporation of paintings and drawings of women's anatomy from the Middle Ages throughout the book, and the author's serious engagement with those works, add another layer of intricacy that I really appreciated.

[Lukey Ellsberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would recommend this book - though probably only to people who already have familiarity with the subject matter as the historiography is (understandably) dry. I find it a very convincing set of revisions to major histories of anatomy.

[rheanna]

read for research - no rating

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. Park boldly uses religious source material to understand the history of science. Restores anatomy, dissection, and surgery to its religious and gendered social context.

[Renske Smekens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ook wederom vergeten hier in te gooien, en ook wederom the holy grail tijdens m’n stage <33

[saizine · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid look at dissection and gender in the medieval/early modern period in Europe - from the anatomies of holy women (in order to somehow "confirm" their piety) to the unnamed female criminal portrayed in the title page of Vesalius' De humani corporis fabrica. Not the most eminently readable text I've come across in my time reading monographs, but I found the sections discussing Caesarian sections, the "occult" nature of feminine interior anatomy, and self-displaying anatomical illustration particularly interesting. Also a wonderful number of accompanying illustrations/woodcuts/engravings etc.

[Emily Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't been this interested in a nonfiction book in a long time! I enjoyed every part of it. After having read many books about dissection in past times, I thought there would never be a new angle to it--until I read this book. Women, though they were mainly not allowed to view dissections, were still affected by the science of dissection. A fantastic read, with thorough footnotes and bilbiography, something you don't see too often.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible story about the canonization of dissection in 14th and 15th c. Italy as the preeminent way to know our bodies, and how these practices relate to women's bodies, perceived as "allusive and holding secrets." Easy to read, lots of information, well researched. Great example of ways to integrate science and art.

[Elana · Rating 4 out of 5]

read the first two chapters then stop reading.