The Production and Transmission of Medical Remedies in the Writings of the Royal Midwife, Louise Bourgeois (1563-1636)
In her three volume Observations diverses (1626), Louise Bourgeois provided a vast array of medical recipes for the benefit of midwives as well as for women too poor to buy remedies from a pharmacist.[1] Domestic medicine, that is medical recipes and treatments transmitted from mother to daughter and woman to woman within and among families for a variety of illnesses and injuries and for pregnant and parturient women, was an important source of knowledge from which Bourgeois derived many of her recipes. In addition, Bourgeois consulted with learned physicians from whom she acquired efficacious recipes and treatments. Finally, Bourgeois derived her recipes and treatments from printed texts such as those by Dr. Philibert Guybert who wrote a handbook for laypeople who wished to compound their own medicaments, Andrea Matthioli who wrote commentaries on the writings of the ancient medical and pharmaceutical author, Dioscorides, and the surgeon and obstetrical innovator, Ambroise Paré who wrote on obstetrics. [2] Altogether these sources created a pool of information from which Bourgeois fashioned her own recipes and therapies for treating women and children for a variety of illnesses and injuries. Thus, this paper argues that Bourgeois produced, and transmitted medical knowledge and practices derived from a combination of female and male centered traditions that she accessed via the written and spoken word.
[1] Observations diverses (Paris, 1626) to be published as Diverse Observations, trans. Stephanie O’Hara, ed. Alison Klairmont Lingo for The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe, Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, Toronto, Canada.
[2] Guybert Le Medecin charitable (Paris, 1623); Mattioli, Commentaires sur les six livres de Ped. Dioscoride Anazarbeen de la matiere Medecinale. (Lyon, 1579); Paré, De la génération (Paris, 1585).
See more of: Society for the Study of Early Modern Women
See more of: Affiliated Society Sessions