Article ID: CBB000830242

The Death of Isabella della Volpe: Four Eyewitness Accounts of a Postmortem Caesarean Section in 1545 (2008)

unapi

Park, Katharine (Author)


Bulletin of the History of Medicine
Volume: 82
Pages: 169--187


Publication Date: 2008
Edition Details: Part of a special issue: Women, Health, and Healing in Early Modern Europe
Language: English

Summary: This article provides a transcription and translation of four notarized declarations describing the events surrounding a postmortem caesarean section performed in 1545 in Vercelli, a small city in the Duchy of Savoy. After her death in the late stages of pregnancy, Isabella della Volpe's body was opened and her fetus excised by a local barber, aided by a surgeon and a midwife. The article argues that the postmortem caesarean section was a well-known and widely accepted procedure and that it might be motivated by financial and legal as well as religious concerns; not only was it important to baptize the child for its salvation, but the fate of the mother's dowry, as in this case, might depend on whether she died with or without living issue.

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Article Fissell, Mary Elizabeth (2008) Introduction: Women, Health, and Healing in Early Modern Europe. Bulletin of the History of Medicine (p. 1). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB000830242/

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Authors & Contributors
Oren-Magidor, Daphna
Claudia Jeanne Ford
Vaglienti, Folco
Withycombe, Shannon K.
Sheridan, Bridgette Ann Majella
Schwartz, Marie Jenkins
Concepts
Medicine
Childbirth
Reproductive medicine
Obstetrics and pregnancy
Medicine and gender
Autopsy
Time Periods
17th century
16th century
Renaissance
Medieval
19th century
Early modern
Places
Italy
United States
France
Milan (Italy)
Atlantic Ocean
England
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