From Print to Wool: Vesalius and the ‘Knit your own womb’ Movement

Helen King

doi:10.18778/1505-9065.21.16

Authors

Helen King The Open University https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5874-8183

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1505-9065.21.16

Keywords:

body fluids, craft, knitting, uterus, political action

Abstract

The womb has been represented in many ways across Western European history, from miracle to sewer. This chapter begins with some of the earliest ways of showing the womb in printed materials. It then looks at what happens when different physical media are used to portray this and other body parts, focusing in particular on the impact of wool and similar materials in making the womb not only more approachable for women but also a potential political tool in claiming women’s rights.

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Author Biography

Helen King, The Open University

Helen King is Professor Emerita of Classical Studies at The Open University. She is a historian of medicine and the body, and has held visiting posts at Gustavus Adolphus College, MN; the Peninsula Medical School; and the universities of Vienna, Texas, Notre Dame, and British Columbia. She has published widely on ancient medicine, especially gynaecology, and its reception in western Europe. She is the author of Immaculate Forms: Uncovering the History of Women’s Bodies (Profile, 2024: Basic Books, 2025). Her earlier books include Hippocrates Now (Bloomsbury, 2019); The One-Sex Body on Trial: The Classical and Early Modern Evidence (Ashgate, 2013); Blood, Sweat and Tears: The Changing Concepts of Physiology from Antiquity into Early Modern Europe (with Manfred Horstmanshoff and Claus Zittel, Brill, 2012); Midwifery, Obstetrics and the Rise of Gynaecology (Ashgate, 2007) and The Disease of Virgins: Green Sickness, Chlorosis and the Problems of Puberty (Routledge, 2004), as well as a short introductory book, Greek and Roman Medicine (Bloomsbury, 2001).

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