"consyderynge the manyfolde, dayly and imminent dangerours and parells, the which all manner of women...in theyr labours do sustayne...I thought it should be a very charitable and laudabel dede: and ryght thanfully to be accepted of all honourable and other honest matrones, yf by my paynes this lytell treatyse were made to speak Englysshe."
(obviously during Jane Fonda video workout)
The publication names/author/year are in the URL for each image above - clicking will give a slightly larger version.
These are just random images from a few sites. Come the revolution when I'm installed as Book Digitizing Emperor, first job after putting website frame coders up on telegraph poles will be to decree that all the early obstetrical text books be made available online.
The quote above comes from the preface to the english edition (The Byrth of Mankynde or The Womans Booke) of Eucharius Rösslin's groundbreaking treatise on birth and midwifery from 1513, Der Swangern Frawen und Hebamen Rosengarten. [Rösslin is misspelt in the URLs above]
- University of Kansas Clendening History of Medicine Library and Museum rare text images on reproduction.
- Case Western Reserve University Dittrick History Medical Center Obstetric Literature and the Changing Character of Childbirth.
- University of Glasgow Library Special Collection's Books for Women.
- Some random other images (this last one is definitely not safe for work, if Frida Kahlo's non-subtle birth depiction is considered outside the scope of art)
- This site - The Doe Report - is a great resource for today's state of the art illustrations - all facets of anatomy and not just gynaecology/obstetrics
- Pitt University's Multiple Births in Legend and Folklore
- A Short History of Midwifery
- History of Midwifery Timline
- A History of Midwifery in Pictures (sorry, it's geocities but still pretty good)
- University of Pennsylvania's A Century of Obstetrics
- A Midwife's Tale - PBS.
- Indiana University's Midwives and Maternity Care in the Roman World
- University of Manitoba's Dying to Have a Baby - A History of Childbirth.
3 comments :
Come the revolution when I'm installed as Book Digitizing Emperor...
You know... some of us are actually scanning books and providing them for free now, though I assure you this is in preparation for your Imminent Glorious Reign-to-be. You can learn more -- and perhaps tell us what besides obstetrical works you might find of interest, so we can, um, get a head start on it all -- at Distributed Proofreaders.
Bill, sometimes I express rhetorically the cumulation of frustration I experience when I go through the exhaustive searching that makes up a post like this.
I am of course very - no, hugely - thankful for the digitizing work that has been/is being done. There's a trillion things I'd like to see online, but I understand that a lot of time/effort/money go into the process and I neither mean offense nor am attempting to belittle the work being carried out at present by my absurd commentary.
One large slice of the background to this weblog is traversing the repositories of the world and when I spend a couple of hours hoping to add breadth to a single image that often provides impetus for my roving, I often get disappointed to learn that the whole of a publication hasn't been digitized. But it's often a long way from start to dead-end.
So I responded today with humour. *shrug* But I'll visit your posted site and if I'm able to offer a 2c contribution about something, I will.
As book-digitization emperor-elect, you might be interested in some of the issues discussed at DigiCULT.
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