A Curious Gender in Hermes and Asclepius: Some Remarks on the Historical Iconogyny of Alchemy and Anatomy

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1505-9065.21.04

Keywords:

female body, iconography, medical book, early modern period

Abstract

This article responds to the need for a cross-disciplinary approach to the iconography of anatomy and alchemy. In these two fields, the recurrent representations of the female body, or iconogyny, in a number of publications from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries invite us to examine the question of gender independently, as much as is possible, of written discourse. The study focuses on some thirty illustrations, more or less familiar to historians of texts and ideas, and aims at contributing to the imaginary of the pre-modern body.

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Author Biography

Hervé Baudry, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa

Hervé Baudry est chercheur principal au CHAM-Centre for the Humanities de l’université nouvelle de Lisbonne (NOVA). Il est l’auteur de livres et articles sur l’histoire de la médecine et de l’alchimie médicale. Ses recherches actuelles portent principalement sur le contrôle des livres et des idées dans la première modernité, notamment la microcensure des textes, ainsi que sur la transcription automatique (HTR) des archives de l’Inquisition, institution clef dans l’histoire de la censure.

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Published

2026-01-29

How to Cite

Baudry, H. (2026). A Curious Gender in Hermes and Asclepius: Some Remarks on the Historical Iconogyny of Alchemy and Anatomy. Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Litteraria Romanica, (21), 49–85. https://doi.org/10.18778/1505-9065.21.04