Search Results

In the modern narrative of medical history the chapter devoted to the female body is remarkable both for its composition and for its chronological position, recounting the “discovery” of the female genital apparatus, piece by piece and name by name, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The anatomical study of the female body is presented as the exploration of a previously unknown territory, while calling into question the allegedly “natural” hierarchy of the sexes, founded on the idea of female imperfection. How was this new object of knowledge integrated into scientific discourse on the human body? In the margin or among the footnotes? As a “second version”? In the form of a tiers livre? Berengario’s Commentary on Mondino (1521), Vesalius’ De Humani Corporis Fabrica (1543), and the third book of Charles Estienne’s Dissection des parties du corps humain (1545) each display a different compositional strategy, providing a distinct answer to this problem. Together they show the gradual, tentative emergence of an unprecedented place for femininity in human thought.

Keywords: Charles Estienne, Charles Estienne, Andreas Vesalius, André Vésale, Berengario da Carpi, Berengario da Carpi, Anatomie féminine, Female Anatomy, Treatise of Anatomy, Traité anatomique