What Were Early Modern Beds Like?
Fairy tales don't have to make sense to be meaningful. They follow their own logic and readers – or, traditionally, listeners – get so enraptured in the story that no …
What Made a 17th-Century Midwife Good at Her Job?
Percivall Willughby (1596–1685) despised the midwives of his time. In his 1670s book, Observations in Midwifery, he intended to 'inform the ignorant common midwives', whose brutal methods were responsible for …
Little Red Riding Hood and the Invisibility of Older Women
How old was Little Red Riding Hood? In the earliest, 16th-century versions of the tale, she was around the age of puberty. Other details you might not know include the …
How to Clean Your Body in the Renaissance
One of the silliest historical myths out there is that people in the past were somehow ‘dirty’ and had poor hygiene, especially compared to today’s standards. Of course, I’m generalising; …
The ‘Queen of Hysterics’ and 19th-Century Theatrical Hysteria
Everybody was talking about hysteria in late 19th-century Paris. Hysterics appeared in novels and plays; they were painted, photographed, sculpted and drawn. People crowded the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris to …
Maternal Mortality and “The Mother’s Legacy to Her Unborn Child”
Giving birth in early modern Europe was a dangerous rite of passage, one which most women would go through, and some would not survive. Women were largely defined by their …
What is the ‘Doctrine of Signatures’?
In the early modern period, an impotent man might be prescribed boiled orchid roots. But why? Well, they resembled testicles and were consequentially believed to be useful in improving male …
A Grip on the History of Forceps in Medicine
On a cold winter evening in 1600, Peter Chamberlen the Younger found himself attending to a labouring woman on the outskirts of London. The mother-to-be had been in labour for …
Eostre and Easter: ‘Rebranding’ a Spring Goddess to Fit Christianity?
Have you ever wondered where the word ‘Easter’ comes from? Let me introduce you to the Germanic goddess of dawn and spring, Eostre, after whom Easter was possibly named. (Historians …
The Surprising Connection Between Freud and Greek Mythology
If there’s one person who thought and wrote about penises a lot, it was Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the ‘father of psychoanalysis’. Like many nineteenth-century intellectuals, Freud was interested in sex …
Moderata Fonte and ‘The Woman Question’
Is there anything more enlightening than listening in while women discuss their role in society? As the recent adaptation of Miriam Toews novel Women Talking shows, this is a pretty …
The Fascinating World of Aphrodisiacs
When most of us think of aphrodisiacs nowadays, we imagine a menu of oysters and chocolate, perfect for Valentine’s Day – even if the odd garlic or fenugreek makes an …
Why is it that we imagine an older woman when we think of a witch?
Close your eyes and imagine a witch. What do you see? In my case, perhaps unsurprisingly, I picture the Wicked Witch of the West as played by the wonderful Margaret …
What is the ‘Wandering Womb’?
Imagine ‘an animal inside an animal’, a thirsty creature, dragging itself in search of water, pushing aside everything that was on its way… Do you think that sounds sinister? So …
‘Holy Anorexia’: The Fascinating Connection between Religious Women and Fasting
Social media might make it seem like fasting (and especially intermittent fasting) is something new. But fasting – voluntarily or not – has arguably existed for as long as humans …
‘Extended’ Breastfeeding in the Elizabethan Period
In the UK today, only 1% of babies are exclusively breastfed by the time they are six months old, as recommended by the World Health Organization. Even fewer infants are …
‘Follow what I say’: Isabella Cortese and Early Modern Female Alchemists
ow would you go about learning alchemy? Well, I would start by making a list of alchemists whose work I should read. Then, I would do a lot of reading. …
On the Medusa, Vampires, and the Fear of the Female Body
I recently read Natalie Haynes’ incredible new novel, Stone Blind: Medusa’s Story (which I highly recommend), and that got me thinking about female monsters – and menstruating women. The Medusa …
Motherhood and Wet Nurses: Breastfeeding in Early Modern Times
If you were living in early modern England (say in the 17th century), there were so many things to consider after you had a baby. But one of the main …
Elizabeth I and Ageing
A few days before Queen Elizabeth II’s death, she met the UK’s new prime minister, Liz Truss, at Balmoral Castle, in Scotland. Royal watchers were quick to point out what …