Women and the Female Body in Bernardo de Gordon’s Lilium Medicine. A Medical Compendium from 1303
Keywords:
Medieval Medicine, Humoralism, Natural Philosophy, WomanAbstract
The goal of this work is to analyze the treatment given to the female body in Bernardo de Gordon´s Lilium medicine, a text of clinical practice, written in 1303. According to humoralism, women differed from men in degree of heat. She was colder and more humide than the male, which represented an inferiority to the male and was manifested itself from the embryonic phase, continuing throughout life. As a consequence, it was understood that women were exposed to less resistance to exercise, a greater capacity to transmit diseases and some even had the ability to generate them in weak people or children. Starting in the 13th century, an interest in the correction of body imperfections arose, but the same standards were not used for men and women; losing hair, displaying blemishes or hair removal in different areas of the body were nor treated in the same way by doctors. This work raises the reflection of these issues in the clinical field, starting from the systematic study of a very popular compendium during the late Middle Ages, which was the subject of numerous translations into vernacular languages.
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