1486 –1487 ROELANS DE MECHLINIA, Cornelius [Cornelis Roelants van Mechelen] (1450 – 1525)
Opusculum aegritudinum puerorum.
A work on disorders of pregnant women as well as on pediatrics. It describes 52 childhood diseases, providing the name, the causes, symptoms, prognosis and treatment of each, drawing on Greek authors, Arabs (especiall…
GMN 6316.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8077
1495 ORTOLF VON BAIERLAND, (Ortolf von Würzburg) ( – 1290)
Büchlein der schwangeren Frauen.
The first obstetrical book printed in the vernacular. Facsimile edition, Munich, 1910. Ortoloff also wrote the first German pharmacopoeia. See No. 1794. ISTC No. io00113000. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische Staat…
GMN 6137.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7668
1502 –1503 BONACCIOLI, Ludovico [Lodovico; Bonaciolus] (1475 – 1536)
Enneas muliebris.
This work was prepared for and dedicated to Lucrezia Borgia by her physician, Bonaccioli, who guided her through 14 pregnancies, the last of which was fatal to both mother and child. The first three chapters concern f…
GMN 9325 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11507
1513 RÖSSLIN, Eucharius [RHODION; ROESSLIN] (1470 – 1526)
Der Swangern Frauwen und Hebammen Rosegarten.
The earliest printed textbook for midwives. It underwent over 100 editions, being used as late as 1730. The first edition was published in Strassburg by Martin Flach in 1513. This was demonstrated most recently by Law…
GMN 6138 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7680
1532 RÖSSLIN, Eucharius [RHODION; ROESSLIN] (1470 – 1526); RÖSSLIN, Eucharius (Rhodion; Roesslin) der Jüngere ( – 1554)
De partu hominis, et quae circa ipsum accidunt.
Eucharius Rösslin the Younger translated his father's Der schwangeren Frauwen und Hebammen Rosengarten (1513) into Latin, from which it is was translated into French, Dutch, and English, and was frequently reprinted. …
GMN 12764 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15010
1533 –1534 AETIUS OF AMIDA [ἈΈΤΙΟΣ ἈΜΙΔΗΝΌΣ; AETIUS AMIDENUS; AËTIUS] (450 – 550); CORNARIUS, Janus (1500 – 1558); MONTANUS, Johannes Baptista [Giovanni Battista Monte] (1498 – 1551)
Aetii Amideni quem alii Antiochenum vocant medici clarissimi libri XVI. tomos divisi : quorum primus & ultimus Ioan. Baptista Montano Veronensi medico, secundus Iano Cornario Zuiccauiensi, & ipso medicinae professore, interpretibus latinitate donati sunt. In quo opere cuncta quae ad curandi artem pertinent congesta sunt, ex omnibus qui usq[ue] ad eius tempora scripserant, diligentissime excerpta. Additus est index in omneis tomos copiosissimus. 3 vols.
J. B. Montanus and Janus Cornarius prepared the first edition of Aetius's collected works in Latin translation. That edition was the first to include Aetius's writings on obstetrics, which epitomized all previous know…
GMN 6974 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9140
1540 RÖSSLIN, Eucharius [RHODION; ROESSLIN] (1470 – 1526)
The byrth of mankynde.
The first English treatise on midwifery, translated by Richard Jonas from the 1532 Latin translation by Roesslin the Younger (De partu hominis) of Roesslin's work (1513). The 1540 English edition was illustrated with …
GMN 6139 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7681
1549 PARÉ, Ambroise (1510 – 1590)
Briefve collection de l'administration anatomique: avec la manière de conjoindre les os: et d’extraire les enfans tant mors que vivans du ventre de la mere, lors que nature de soy ne peult venir a son effect.
Paré’s revival of podalic version repopularized the procedure, which had been described by Soranus of Ephesus (No. 6008). English translation in The Workes of Ambroise Parey [sic], London, 1634. Digital facsimile of t…
GMN 6140 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7683
1550 ANONYMOUS
Ordnung eines erbarn Raths der Statt Regenspurg, die Hebammen betreffende.
The earliest public document in the vernacular containing legislation governing midwives. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
GMN 6142 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7686
1554 RUF, Jacob [RUEFF; RÜFF; RUOFF] (1500 – 1558)
Ein schön lustig Trostbüchle von den Empfengknussen und Geburten der Menschen…
An improved version of Rösslin’s Swangern frawen. This contains the first true anatomical pictures in an obstetrics book. Rueff described smooth-edged forceps for delivery of a live baby, preceding Chamberlen, and a t…
GMN 463 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7685
1564 ARANZI, Giulio Cesare [ARANZIO; ARANTIUS] (1530 – 1589)
De humano foetu.
According to Charles Singer, Aranzi gave the first adequate printed account of the gravid uterus, and finally dispelled the idea of a human cotyledonous placenta. He gave by far the best description of fetal anatomy u…
GMN 464 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/1246
1566 WOLFF, Caspar [WOLF] (1525 – 1601)
Gynaeciorum, hoc est, de mulierum turn aliis, tum gravidarum, parientium et puerperarum affectibus et morbis, libri veterum ac recentiorum aliquot, partim nunc primum editi, partim multo quam antea castigatiores.
The first encyclopedia of gynecology and obstetrics, originally conceived by Conrad Gesner, who collected material for the purpose. Wolff, Gesner’s literary executor, added material and published the collection one ye…
GMN 6011 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7193
1566 GESNER, Conrad [Konrad Gessner] (1516 – 1565); WOLFF, Caspar [WOLF] (1525 – 1601); MUSCIO [MUSTIO; MOSCHION] (500 – )
Moschionos Peri gynaikeion pathon, id est…De morbis muliebribus liber unus; cum CONARDI GESNERI… scholiis & emendationibus nun primum editus opera ac studio CASPARI WOLPHII.
The earliest text specifically for midwives, based on the teachings of Soranus, the greatest obstetrical writer of antiquity. Muscio was a pupil of Soranus. His book, the earliest copy of which is a manuscript dating …
GMN 6136 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8618
1570 BRAVO, Francisco (1530 – 1594)
Opera medicinalia.
Opera medicinalia was the first medical book printed in the Western Hemisphere, and its botanical images were the first illustrations of plants printed in the Western Hemisphere. Of the original edition only two copie…
GMN 5372 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7014
1573 PARÉ, Ambroise (1510 – 1590)
Deux livres de chirurgie. I. De la generation de l’homme… II. Des monstres tant terrestres que marins avec leurs portraits.
Many reports of real malformations are intermixed with mythical accounts. English translations, 1634, and later. Recent English translation, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1982. Digital facsimile of the 1573 ed…
GMN 534.51 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/1798
1573 LONITZER, Adam (Lonicer) (1528 – 1586)
Reformation oder Ordnung für die Hebammen.
Legislation governing the practice of midwifery was introduced in the city of Frankfurt in 1573, Digital facsimile from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link.
GMN 6143 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7689
1575 PARÉ, Ambroise (1510 – 1590)
Les oeuvres de M. Ambroise Paré.
Paré was the greatest of the army surgeons before Larrey. Born in poor circumstances, he became the most famous surgeon in France. He is particularly remembered for his abandonment of boiling oil and the cautery (No. …
GMN 5565 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6944
1581 ROUSSET, François [ROUSSETUS; ROSSETUS] (1535 – 1590)
Traitte nouveau de l’hysterotomotokie, ou enfantement caesarien.
Rousset records 15 successful Caesarean sections carried out by various persons during the preceding 80 years.
GMN 6236 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7876
1586 –1588 WOLFF, Caspar [WOLF] (1525 – 1601)
Gynaeciorum sive de mulierum affectibus commentarii Graecorum, Latinorum, barbarorum, iam olim & nunc recens editorum: in tres tomos digesti, et necessariis passim imaginibus illustrati. 4 vols.
A hugely enlarged version of No. 6011, with texts in Greek as well as Latin. Digital facsimile of vol. 1 from Google Books at this link.
GMN 6012 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7196
1587 ARANZI, Giulio Cesare [ARANZIO; ARANTIUS] (1530 – 1589)
De humano foetu liber tertio editus, ac recognitus. Eiusdem anatomicarum observationum liber: ac De tumoribus secundum locos affectos liber nunc primum editi.
First edition of Aranzi's Anatomicarum observationum published with the third edition of De humano foetu. In the Anatomicarum observationum Aranzi pointed out that the eye muscles arise from the margin of the optic ca…
GMN 7337 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9508
1596 MERCURIO, Geronimo Scipione (1550 – 1616)
La commare o riccoglitrice.
First Italian book on obstetrics. It is a work of importance for the study of the history of Caesarean section; in it Mercurio advocated the Caesarean operation in cases of contracted pelvis.
GMN 6144 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7691
1597 SPACH, Israel (1560 – 1610)
Gynaeciorum sive de mulierum tum communibus, turn gravidarum, parientum, et puerperarum affectibus et morbis, libri Graecorum, Arabum, Latinorum veterum et recentium quotquot extant, parti nunc primum editi, partim vero denuo recogniti, emendati, necessariis imaginibus exornati, & optimorum scriptorum autoritatibus illustrati.
Spach was the editor of this collection of gynecological writings. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
GMN 6013 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7200
1600 BONAVENTURA, Federico (1555 – 1602)
De natura partus octomestris adversus vulgatam opinionem libri decem ... In quo absolutissima de humani partus natura cognitio traditur; nimirum de conceptione, articulatione, maturitate, de partuum numero, pariendique terminis ac temporibus; utrum ante septimum mensem, ac post decimum, undecimique initium partus naturaliter edi possit. De septimestri, nonomestri, decimestri, undecimestrique partu, deque veris horum omnium causis plenissime Aristotele duce disputatur ... Item ejusdem auctoris compendiosa de eodem partu disceptatio ...
An encyclopedic work on ancient and contemporary medical, scientific and juridical opinion on premature birth and the period of gestation. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
GMN 6144.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7696
1609 BOURGEOIS, Louise [or Louise Boursier or Louise Bourgeois or Louyse Bourgeous] (1563 – 1636)
Observations diverses sur la sterilité, perte de fruict, foecondité, accouchements, et maladies des femmes, et enfants nouveaux naiz.
The first book on obstetrics published by a midwife. Louise Bourgeois was accoucheuse to the French court. She was one of the pioneers of scientific midwifery; her Observations was the vade mecum of contemporary midwi…
GMN 6145 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7698
1609 GUILLEMEAU, Jacques (1550 – 1613)
De l’heureux accouchement des femmes.
Actual origin of the so–called “Mauriceau” manoeuvre, usually credited to Mauriceau (No. 6147). Guillemeau was not only responsible for this technique for delivery of the after coming head so important before the forc…
GMN 6145.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7700
1651 HARVEY, William (1578 – 1657)
Exercitationes de generatione animalium.
Harvey was among the first to disbelieve the erroneous doctrine of the “preformation” of the fetus; he maintained that the organism derives from the ovum by the gradual building up and aggregation of its parts. The ch…
GMN 467 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/1263
1655 COURVÉE, Jean Claude de la (1615 – 1664)
De nutritione foetus in utero paradoxa.
Page 245 contains a report of successful symphysiotomy.
GMN 6146.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7706
1663 ROONHUYZE, Hendrick van (1622 – 1672)
Heel-konstige aanmerkkingen betreffende de gebreeken der vrouwen.
Roonhuyze’s book is regarded as the first work on operative gynecology in the modern sense. He successfully performed caesarean section several times, and he used retractors for the repair of vesicovaginal fistulae. E…
GMN 6015 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7207
1668 MAURICEAU, François (1637 – 1709)
Des maladies des femmes grosses et accouchées.
The outstanding textbook of the time. Mauriceau, leading obstetrician of his day, introduced the practice of delivering his patients in bed instead of in the obstetrical chair. It was to Mauriceau that Hugh Chamberlen…
GMN 6147 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7708
1671 SHARP, Jane (1625 – )
The midwives book: or the whole art of midwifery discovered.
The first book written by an English midwife. Sharp was the most accomplished midwife of 17th-century England. Scholarly, extensively annotated edition edited by Jane Hobby, New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press,…
GMN 6156.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7728
1684 PSEUDO-ARISTOTLE
Aristoteles master-piece, or the secrets of generation displayed in all the parts thereof . . .
The first sex manual in English, neither by Aristotle or a "masterpiece", provided its readers with practical advice on copulation, conception, pregnancy and birth.This anonymous, inexpensively printed work proved to …
GMN 7030 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9197
1685 PORTAL, Paul (1630 – 1703)
La pratique des accouchemens soutenue d’un grand nombre d’observations.
Portal’s important treatise included his demonstration that version could be done with one foot. He also taught that face presentation usually ran a normal course. English translation, 1705.
GMN 6148 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7710
1690 SIEGEMUNDIN, Justine [DITTRICHIN] (1650 – 1705)
Die Chur-Brandenburgische Hoff-Wehe-Mutter.
With Mauriceau, Justine Siegemundin was responsible for introducing the practice of puncturing the amniotic sac to arrest hemorrhage in placenta praevia. She was midwife to the Court of the Elector of Brandenburg, and…
GMN 6149 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7712
1701 DEVENTER, Hendrik van (1651 – 1724)
Manuale operatien, I. deel zijnde een neiuw ligt voor vroed-meesters en vroed-vrouen.
This work gives the first accurate description of the female pelvis and its deformities, and the effect of the latter in complicating labor. The first edition contains a relatively unattractive frontispiece portrait o…
GMN 6253 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7946
1721 MAUQUEST DE LA MOTTE, Guillaume (1665 – 1737)
Traité complet des accouchemens.
Mauquest de la Motte applied podalic version to head presentations. English translation, prepared at the suggestion of William Smellie, 1746.
GMN 6150 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7714
1733 CHAPMAN, Edmund (1680 – 1756)
An essay on the improvement of midwifery.
Gives the first published account of the forceps, kept secret by the Chamberlen family for generations. Chapman was the second person in England to teach midwifery publicly. The first edition of his book was not illus…
GMN 6156.2 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7730
1734 GIFFARD, William ( – 1731); HODY, Edward (1698 – 1759)
Cases in midwifry. Revised by Edward Hody.
Giffard was one of the first, after the Chamberlens, to use the forceps. His book contains, under case 14, the earliest published record of the use of the hitherto secret Chamberlen forceps, in 1726, together with ill…
GMN 6156.3 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7732
1742 OULD, Sir Fielding (1710 – 1789)
A treatise of midwifry.
The teaching of Ould did much towards the advancement of midwifery in the British Isles. His Treatise is the first text-book of obstetrics of any importance in English.
GMN 6151 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7715
1747 LEVRET, André (1703 – 1780)
Observations sur les causes et les accidens de plusieurs accouchemens laborieux.
Levret, who improved the obstetric forceps, was a famous teacher in Paris.
GMN 6152 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7716
1751 STUBBS, George (1724 – 1806); BURTON, John (1697 – 1771)
An essay towards a complete new system of midwifery, theoretical and practical.
Burton was the first to suggest that puerperal fever is contagious, and the first to give a detailed discussion of Caesarean section. Laurence Steme satirized him as “Dr. Slop” in The life and opinions of Tristram Sha…
GMN 6268 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7976
1752 SMELLIE, William (1697 – 1763)
A treatise on the theory and practice of midwifery.
Smellie contributed more to the fundamentals of obstetrics than virtually any individual. In his Treatise he described more accurately than any previous writer the mechanism of parturition, stressing the importance of…
GMN 6154 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7719
1752 FATIO, Johannes (1649 – 1691)
Der Arzney Doctor, Helvetisch-Vernünftige Wehe-Mutter, oder Gründlicher Unterricht, wie mit den Schwangern, Gebährenden, Kindbetterinnen und neugebohrnen Kindern umzugehen, selbige gebührend zu verpflegen, und in allerhand ihnen zustossenden Kranckheiten zu begegnen seye: Samt einer ausführlichen Beschreibung von Fortpflanzung des menschlichen Geschlechts, und aller weiblichen Leibes-Theilen, auch der Empfängniß, Formir- und Bildung der Frucht im Mutterleibe. Nebst des Verfassers curiösen Anmerckungen, selbst-bewährten Handgriffen, Curen und dazu dienlichen Arzney-Mitteln. Dem löblichen Frauenzimmer, geschwohrnen Weibern, und andern ehrbaren Frauen zu Nutz, mit besonderm Fleisse in fünf Abschnitte eingetheilt. Mit vielen Kupfern und dreyen Registern.
Fatio was probably the first surgeon to study and treat surgical conditions of children in a systematic fashion. His book, first published over 60 years after his death, is divided into five parts: 1) the anatomy of w…
GMN 6357.51 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8217
1753 LEVRET, André (1703 – 1780)
L’art des accouchemens.
Besides introducing a curved forceps (see No. 6152) Levret invented several other obstetric instruments and made fundamental observations on pelvic anomalies. His book covered the whole field of obstetrics and remaine…
GMN 6153 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7718
1754 SMELLIE, William (1697 – 1763)
A sett [sic] of anatomical tables, with explanations, and an abridgment, of the practice of midwifery…
The celebrated atlas for No. 6154, which is a complete work in itself. The 39 superb engravings include 26 after drawings by Jan van Rymsdyk, which are preserved in the Hunterian Collection at the University of Glasgo…
GMN 6154.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7722
1757 JENTY, Charles Nicholas (1720 – 1770)
The demonstrations of a pregnant uterus of a woman at her full term.
Atlas of six superb life-size mezzotint plates after paintings by Jan van Rymsdyk. A separate 16-page text was published in octavo.
GMN 6156.4 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7734
1759 COUDRAY, Angélique Marguerite Le Boursier du (1712 – 1794)
Abregé de l'art des accouchements, dans lequel on donne les préceptes nécessaires pour le mettre heureusement en pratique, et auquel on a joint plusieurs observations intéressantes sur des cas singuliers.
After ten years as a midwife in Paris, Madame du Coudray was hired by King Louis XV to travel across France to better train rural midwives.There were political motivations for this; Louis wanted to boost a “declining”…
GMN 6848 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9012
1762 HUNTER, William (1718 – 1783)
A singular case of the separation of the ossa pubis.
A case of osteomalacic pelvis was reported to Hunter by a country practitioner.
GMN 6254 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7948
1764 LOUIS, Antoine (1723 – 1792)
Mémoire contre la légitimité des naissances prétendues tardives.
An attempt to set the minimum and maximum time limits of duration of human pregnancy. Supplement published in 1764.
GMN 1731 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3034
1764 BARD, John (1716 – 1799)
A case of extra-uterine foetus.
This description of an abdominal pregnancy, successfully operated on by Bard was “the first scientific paper on a surgical subject to come from the North American Colonies” (Earle). John Bard was the father of Samuel …
GMN 6155 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7725
1767 HARVIE, John (1710 – 1770)
Practical directions, shewing a method of preserving the perinaeum in birth, and delivering the placenta without violence.
Harvie, Smellie’s successor, advocated external expression of the placenta instead of traction on the cord, anticipating Credé in this connection by almost a century (see No. 6183). Reprinted in H. Thoms: Classic cont…
GMN 6156 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7727
