A. Barratt
The Knowing of Woman's Kind in Childing
A Middle English Trotula-Text
XII+169 p., 160 x 240 mm, 2001
ISBN: 978-2-503-51073-6
Languages: English
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This study comprises a critical edition, using all the five extant
MSS, of the most popular of the Middle English gynaecological texts
deriving from the Latin Trotula-text.
This study comprises a critical edition,
using all the five extant MSS, of the most popular of the Middle
English gynaecological texts deriving from the Latin Trotula-text. The
Knowing of Women's Kind in Childing is a short fifteenth-century
prose treatise which claims to be translated from Latin texts (or Latin
and French, according to some manuscripts) that derive ultimately from
the Greek. It has a unique importance as it was written by a woman, for
a female audience, and on the subject of women. The text considers
women's physical constitution, what makes them different from men
(primarily the possession of a womb) and, in particular, the three
types of problem that the womb causes. That it was written for a female
audience is made explicit in the Prologue where the writer explains
that he has translated this text out of French and Latin into English
because literate women are more likely to read English than any other
language and can then pass on the information it contains to illiterate
women. More controversial must be the claim that this text was written
by a woman. The text is a translation, no doubt by a man, but one of
his ultimate sources was a text attributed to 'Trotula', in the
Middle Ages believed to be the name of a midwife or gynaecologist from
Salerno, who wrote extensively on women's ailments, childbirth and
beauty care. Recent work shows that such a woman, probably named Trota,
did exist and that she did write a gynaecological treatise, the Trotula
or 'little Trota', which became closely associated with two
other texts not by her. All three however became very popular and were
widely disseminated under her name. Large sections of The Knowing of
Woman's Kind come, via an Old French translation, from a version of
the Liber de Sinthomatibus Mulierum (the Cum auctor), the first element
in this Trotula ensemble. [Alexandra Barratt is Professor of English at
the University of Waikato, New Zealand.]
Review
" I believe that the publication of this book is extremely valuable fot the history of women's healthcare in the Middle Ages." (C. Cabaleero Navas in Medical History, vol.47, n°3, July 2003, p. 406)
"Since Barratt has so carefully described her sources and has made every effort to present an accurate text, this edition should be useful to more advanced scholars. On the other hand, its excellent glossary and carefully written introduction should enable undergraduates in upper division courses to make use of the book. Surely it belongs in university libraries everywhere." (D. Evans, in: The Medieval Review, 03.02.19)