Childbirth and the Display of Authority in Early Modern France 0754636194, 9780754636199

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CillLDBIRTH AND THE DISPLAY OF AUTHORITY IN EARLY MODERN FRANCE

Women and Gender in the Early Modem World Series Editors: Allyson Poska and Abby Zanger In the past decade, the study of women and gender has offered some of the most vital and innovative challenges to scholarship on the early modern period. Ashgate's new series of interdisciplinary and comparative studies, Women and Gender in the Early Modern World, takes up this challenge, reaching beyond geographical limitations to explore the experiences of early modern women and the nature of gender in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa. Submissions of single-author studies and edited collections will be considered. Titles in the series include:

Midwiving Subjects in Shakespeare's England Caroline Bicks Widowhood and Visual Culture in Early Modern Europe Edited by Allison Levy Women and the Book Trade in Sixteenth-Century France Susan Broomhall Publishing Women's Life Stories in France, 1647-1720 From Voice to Print Elizabeth C. Goldsmith The Power and Patronage of Marguerite de Navarre Barbara Stephenson Architecture and the Politics of Gender in Early Modern Europe Edited by Helen Hills Women, Art and the Politics of Identity in Eighteenth-Century Europe Edited by Melissa Hyde and Jennifer Milam

Childbirth and the Display of Authority in Early Modern France

LIANNE MCTAVISH University of New Brunswick, Canada

First published 2005 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © Lianne McTavish 2005 Lianne McTavish has asserted her moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

McTavish, Lianne Childbirth and the display of authority in early modem France. -(Women and gender in the early modem world) 1. Midwives- France- History- 16th century 2. MidwivesFrance- History - 17th century 3. Midwives- FranceHistory- 18th century 4. Midwifery- France- History16th century 5. Midwifery - France - History - 17th century 6. Midwifery - France - History - 18th century 7. Childbirth -France- History 8. Midwives in art 9. Childbirth in art 10. Obstetrics - France - History I. Title 618.2'00944'0903

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McTavish, Lianne, 1967Childbirth and the display of authority in early modem France I Lianne McTavish. p. em. - (Women and gender in the early modem world) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7546-3619-4 (alk. paper) 1. Childbirth-France-History. 2. Pregnancy-France-History. 3. ObstetricsFrance-History. I. Title. II. Series. RG652.M385 2004 618.2'00944-dc22

ISBN 13: 978-0-7546-3619-9 (hbk)

2004008774

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Contents

List of Figures Acknowledgements

IX Xlll

Introduction: Interpreting Obstetrical Treatises 1

French Treatises 1550-1730: A Survey

25

2

Risking Exposure: The Visual Politics of Childbirth

57

3

Reading the Midwife's Body: Louise Bourgeois

81

4

Looking the Part: Men-midwives on Display

113

5

Bodies in Labour: Rhetoric, Rivalry, and Male Maternity

143

6

Handling the Unborn: Men-midwives between Vision and Blindness

173

Conclusions

217

Selected Bibliography Index

221 243

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List of Figures

1.1

1.2

1.3 1.4 1.5

1.6

2.1

2.2

3.1

4.1

Unborn figures, from Muscio's Ms. 3701-15, 9th century, Folio 28. Copyright Bibliotheque royale de Belgique Unborn figures, from Eucharius Rosslin's Der swangernfrawen und he bammen roszgarten, 1513, Argentine. Copyright Bibliotheque nationale de France, Paris Unborn figures, from Eucharius Rosslin's Des divers travaux et enfantements des femmes, Paul Bienassis, trans., 1586, Paris. Copyright Bibliotheque nationale de France, Paris Unborn figures, from Jacques Bury's Le propagatif de l 'homme, 1623, Paris. Copyright Bibliotheque nationale de France, Paris Uterus and unborn figures, from Marguerite de La Marche [du Tertre]'s Instruction familiere et tres utile aux sages-femmes pour bien pratiquer les accouchemens, 1710, orig. 1677, Paris. Copyright Bibliotheque nationale de France, Paris Double uterus, from Marguerite de LaMarche [du Tertre]'s Instruction familiere et tres utile aux sages-femmes pour bien pratiquer les accouchemens, 1710, orig. 1677, Paris. Copyright Bibliotheque nationale de France, Paris Female genitalia, from Franc;ois Mauriceau's Des maladies des femmes grosses et accouchees, 1668, Paris. Courtesy of the Edward G. Miner Library, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY Anatomized woman, from Cosme Viardel's Observations sur la pratique des accouchemens naturels, contre nature & monstrueux, 1673, Paris. Courtesy of the National Library ofMedicine, Bethesda, MD Author portrait, from Louise Bourgeois' Observations diverses sur la sterilite, perle de fruict, foecondite, accouchements et maladies des femmes et enfants nouveaux naiz, 1626, Rouen. Courtesy of the Edward G. Miner Library, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY A Man-Mid-Wife, from John Blunt's [Samuel Fores'] Man-Midwifery Dissected, 1793, London. Courtesy ofthe National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD

34 35 36 37

45

45

66

67

92 116

X

4.2 4.3

4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 5.1 6.1 6.2

6.3 6.4

List ofFigures Author portrait, from Jacques Duval's Traite des hermaphrodits, parties genitales, accouchemens des femmes, 1612, Paris. Courtesy of the National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD Author portrait, from Cosme Viardel's Observations sur la pratique des accouchemens nature is, contre nature & monstrueux, 1671, Paris. Courtesy of the National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD Author portrait, from Fraw;:ois Mauriceau's Des maladies des femmes grosses et accouchees, 1668, Paris. Courtesy of the National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD Pierre Bourguinon, La Grande Mademoiselle, 1671, Chateaux de Versailles et de Trianon, Paris. Photo: Reunion des musees nationaux - Gerard Blot Jan van Neck, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Frederik Ruysch, 1683, Amsterdam. Copyright Amsterdams Historisch Museum Author portrait, from Paul Portal's La pratique des accouchemens, 1685, Paris. Courtesy of the National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD Author portrait, from Fran