Inventing Female Anatomy in the Early Modern Period: Dissections and Interpretations of the Uterus

Annagiulia Gramenzi

doi:10.18778/1505-9065.21.03

Auteurs

Annagiulia Gramenzi University of Bologna, Italy https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0183-7668

DOI :

https://doi.org/10.18778/1505-9065.21.03

Mots-clés :

uterus, anatomie, première modernité, corps féminin

Résumé

Considéré à la fois comme l’emblème énigmatique de la féminité et la source de tous les maux des femmes, l’utérus a longtemps été l’objet des spéculations, fantasmes et interprétations médicales masculines. Dans l’Europe de la première modernité, la dissection de l’utérus s’impose comme un vecteur central de production du savoir : un moyen de dévoiler les secrets du pouvoir génératif féminin, d’affirmer un contrôle sur les corps des femmes et de définir plus précisément leur nature fuyante. Cet article explore comment les discours médicaux et anatomiques des XVI^e et XVII^e siècles, toujours imprégnés des héritages classiques et médiévaux sur les femmes, projettent sur l’utérus des narratifs culturels plus larges, oscillant entre émerveillement et pathologie, métaphore et matérialité, nature et moralité. En analysant les sources visuelles et textuelles, il examine comment le regard masculin médical a façonné l’utérus et, par conséquent, le corps féminin au croisement des sciences, de la philosophie et des politiques de genre de l’époque moderne.

Biographie de l'auteur

Annagiulia Gramenzi, University of Bologna, Italy

Former Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna (Italy), Annagiulia Gramenzi also taught History of Medicine at the same institution. Her research interests in the historical field focus primarily on women and representations of the female body in medicine, the construction and transformation of human monstrosity, and history of medicine in the modern era. She also engages with gender medicine and the medical humanities, exploring the intersection of medical knowledge and cultural narratives. Since 2020, she has been a member of the international research project Men for Women: Male Voices in Women’s Complaints, coordinated by the Facultad de Filología at the Universidad de Sevilla (Spain). She is co-author of over 100 publications, including significant contributions to the history of medicine, such as: De uniuersa mulierum medicina: la “natura” e le “infermità” delle donne nella letteratura medica rinascimentale (2018), The Woman in the History of Health (2019), Nascite Mostruose (2021), I libri di segreti: cura e ornamenti per le donne del Rinascimento (2023), La malattia d’amore: divagazioni di genere nella tradizione medica occidentale (2025), and “Tota mulier in utero”: dissezioni e interpretazioni (2025).

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