Abortion and Contraception in the High Middle Ages, Circa 1050-1300
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Durham E-Theses Evacuating the Womb: Abortion and Contraception in the High Middle Ages, circa 1050-1300 HARRIS, LYDIA,MICHELLE How to cite: HARRIS, LYDIA,MICHELLE (2017) Evacuating the Womb: Abortion and Contraception in the High Middle Ages, circa 1050-1300, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/12395/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Evacuating the Womb: Abortion and Contraception in the High Middle Ages, circa 1050-1300 Lydia Harris Submitted in Requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History Durham University 2017 The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without the author’s prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. 1 Contents Illustrations . 4 Table of Texts . 8 Abbreviations . 15 Acknowledgements . 16 Dedication . 17 Introduction . 18 Thesis Outline . 21 Research Parameters . 26 Historical Background and Source Origins . 29 Literature Review . 45 Reproductive Ambiguity . 53 Chapter I: Sterility and Infertility . 59 Tests, Trials, and Midwives . 61 Incomplete Men . 68 Inhospitable Wombs . 76 Purposeful Sterility . 83 Conclusion . 91 Chapter II: Abstinence. 93 Virginal Mothers . 99 Controlling Lust . 108 Mothers, Children, and the Church . 117 Conclusion . 124 Chapter III: Marital Sex . 127 Coitus and Conception . 131 Non-Christian Contraception and Medicinal Appropriation . 140 Contraception and Controlling Sexuality . 149 Conclusion . 157 Chapter IV: Illicit Sexuality . 161 The ‘Secrets’ of Women . 164 Prostitution and Promiscuity . 172 Violent Abortions . 181 Herbal Abortions . 191 Conclusion . 195 Chapter V: Implicit Control . 197 Moving the Menses . 200 Intention . 213 The Transmission of Medical Knowledge . 219 2 Conclusion . 228 Thesis Conclusion . 231 Bibliography . 238 Primary Sources . 238 Secondary Sources . 243 3 Illustrations Image I: Trota of Salerno Wellcome Library, MS 544 (Miscellanea medica XVIII) Early 14th century, France 4 Image II: Trota of Salerno educating a man on the nature of women Rennes, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 593, f. 532r Pre-1304, France 5 Image III: A page from the Antidotarium Nicolai detailing the methods and remedial medicines which used pennyroyal (right) British Library, MS Egerton 747, fol. 76r c. 1280-1310, Salerno 6 Image IV: Midwife administering pennyroyal to an ailing patient Vienna, MS Lat. 93, fol. 93 First half of the 13th century, Sicily 7 8 Qānūn fī t-tibb 1 Pantegni, (Kitāb Kāmil aā- (Canon of Medicine) Medieval 3 Text şinā`a at-tibbīya) , eds. Charles Gerald J. Grudzen, J.Grudzen, Gerald Constantine the African (c. 1010-1087) Ibn-Sīnā (d. 1037) `Alī ibn `Abbās al-Mağūsi Author (d. 982/994) (Leiden: Brill,1994); (Leiden: c. 1070s – Latin translation Avicenna in Renaissance Italy: The Canon and c. 1016-1025 (Lewiston, N.Y.; Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, c. 977 – Arabic original Hamadan Salerno Mağūsi: The Pantegni and Related Texts - Date/Place of Creation Aristotle Faitheds.,ThomasStevenGlick,Wallis,and F. Livesey, Galen - al-Rāzī Influences `Alī ibn `Abbās ağūsi: The Pantegni and Related Texts Related and ağūsi: Pantegni The M - Salerno School Trotula Compendium Peter of Spain Dragmaticon Philosophae, (London: Routledge, 1992); Nancy Siraisi, De secretis mulierum William of Conches Albertus Magnus Adelard of Bath Mentions Influenced/ Thomas Aquinas 1127 – Stephen of Antioch Avicenna Constantine the African and ‘Alī ibn ‘Abbās al Arabic, Latin, Hebrew, French, Italian, Spanish, Latin, Arabic 147. English - (London: Routledge,(London: 2005). Practica VIII,’ in Languages (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University(Princeton,PrincetonNJ:Press,1987); and, 1500 By 13th c. – Canterbury, al‘Abbās ibn ‘Alī Africanand theConstantine Bologna, Paris, Amiens, 100+ extant manuscript 1300 Toledo, Monte Cassino, copies Copies byCopies Salerno, Montpellier, et al (Oxford: OUP, 2010); Lenn E. Goodman, 1150-1187 – Gerard of Cremona translation 1140 – Hildesheim 12th – 18th c. – curriculum Avicenna Mid-12th c. –St. Amand at universities of Paris, Mid-12th c. – Durham Montpellier, Bologna, Notable 1177-1194 – Peterborough2 Circulations Oxford, et al, School at Salerno Jon McGinnis, Monica H. Green, ‘The Recreation of the Pantegni Charles Burnett and DanielleJacquart,Burnettand eds. Charles Burnett Burnett and Danielle Jacquart Brill,(Leiden: 1994),144 3 Medical Theory about the Body and the Soul in the Middle Ages: The First Western Medieval Curriculum at Monte Cassino 2007). Denotes* indirect or supposed influences. 1 MedicalTeachingafter Italian inUniversities Science, Technology,and Medicine: An Encyclopedia 2 9 Viaticum, (Zād al-musāfir De Viribus Herbarum5 4 Text wa-qūt al-ḥāḍir) Latin translation - (Philadelphia, PA: UPP, (Bern: (Bern: Peter Lang, 2012); Exact Identity Unknown – Constantine the African Macer Floridus Jazzār On Sexual Diseases and and Diseases Sexual On Jazzār 92r) - Arabic original – - Author Odo of Meung Ibn al-Jazzār (c. 895 -979) Ibn al Ibn c. 1070s – Latin translation Possibly late-11th c. c. 950s – Ibn al-Jazzār Northern France Salerno Black,Winston add “I Arab oncethe will taught”: what Date/Place of Creation 66; - Hippocrates 312; Gerrit Bos, ed. and trans., trans., ed.and Bos, Gerrit312; Aristotle Galen - Rufus of Ephesus Dioscorides Contraception Abortion and from the Ancient to World the Renaissance Galen of Pergamom Pliny the Elder Influences Paul of Aegina 18, (1976):no. 2 62 e Ancient Mediterranean through the Medieval West: Essays in Honor of John M. JohnHonorEssaysofin AncientMedievalWest: Mediterraneane the through s s in the Middle Ages: The Viaticum and its Commentaries 37, (1993): 296 37,(1993): Al-Rāsī (d. 923/24) Alexander Neckham Trotula compedium Giles of Corbeil Thesaurus Pauperum, Lovesicknes Henry of Huntingdon Mentions Peter of Spain Influenced/ Pharmacy in History MedicalHistory Beginning 11th c. – Greek Latin, Italian, French, Herbsfrom and th Healers 1070s – Latin English, Catalan, Spanish, 1124 – Hebrew Hebrew, Danish The Middle English Version of De Viribus Herbarum (GUL MS Hunter 497, ff. 1r Languages García, eds., - 123 extant manuscripts 100+ extant manuscripts 1300 Copies byCopies Jazzar on Women’s Diseases and their Treatment,’ their and DiseasesWomen’s Jazzar on 1290s – Bologna - th (London: Kegan Paul International, 1997); and, Mary Wack, 13 c. – Montpellier A: HarvardA: University Press, 1992). 1320s/1330s – Kings Martín and Antonio Miranda School, Universities of - Jaume and Alfonso IV of Bologna, Paris, & Oxford Notable Aragon P. Flood, MedievalJr., Herbal‘The Tradition Macerof Floridus,’ , eds.Van Anne Arsdall and GrahamTimothy (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012); and, John M. Riddle, Circulations errit Bos, ‘Ibn Al Bos,‘Ibn errit Javier Calle G Bruce NorthernMedicalVerse,’in Europeanin the Constantine African Riddle (Cambridge, M 4 their Treatments 1990). 5 Liber de sinthomatibus 10 mulierum Regimen Sanitatis (Book on the Conditions of 6 Text Salernitanum Women) of the Trotula compendium7 Medieval Medicine Exact Identity Unknown – Exact Identity Unknown – Brewer, 1990). John of Milan Attributed to Author Arnold of Villanova Trocta/Trota of Salerno F. Benton, ‘Trotula, Women’s Problems,Women’s ‘Trotula, Benton, F. LSM prior to 1187 (Cambridge: (Cambridge: D. S. Trotula compendium 12th century compiled by mid-13th Salerno Valladolid: Universidad de Valladolid, 2010); Melitta century ( Date/Place of Creation Salerno *Hippocrates (Berlin: Peter Lang, 1995); Plinio Prioreschi, Viaticum & Pamtegni, *Soranus of Ephesus Constantine the African *Galen of Pergamom *De viribus herbarum Viaticum, Ibn al-Jazzār Influences 53; and, Edward F. Tuttle, ‘The “Trotula” and Old Trot:Dame Note A on the ofLady - *De viribus herbarum Orderic Vitalis Century England: Introduction and Texts - John of Milan Sefer Dinah… Arnold of Villanova Peter of Spain (1985): 30 Mentions Pedro de Crescenzi De Secretis Mulierum Influenced/ 59, no. 1 Late 12th c. – Hebrew By 15th c. – 40 languages, 13th c. – Anglo-Norman, including French, BHM French; 14th c. – Dutch, German, Italian, and Middle English, German, English k in Regimen Sanitatis, Literature from 800 to 1400 Languages Irish, Italian Popular Medicine in Thirteenth y 72. 7 extant manuscripts from - the 13th century 29+ extant manuscripts 1300 28 copies by 1500 Copies b Copies 120 print copies Flos Medicine (Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum): estudio, edición crítica y traducción c. 1250 - Italy, France, & c. 1200 - Bologna Medieval Dietetics: Food and Drin Germany 50, 1976): no. 1 (Spring 61 c. 1200 – Montpellier and 1305 – Montpellier School Paris th de Frutos Gonzalez, Mid-14 – Sorbonne, Paris BHM Notable c. 1200 - England Circulations Virginia Virginia See: Monica H. Green, ed. and trans., Trotula: A Medieval Compendium of Women’s Medicine (Philadelphia,