“Vocabatur vulgo Ingenitus”. Caesarean section in Middle Ages

Abstract

The Caesarean section on a living woman, in order to save both woman and child, was conceived by the physician and surgeon François Rousset in his short French treatise written at the end of the 16th century. Until then, only the opening the dead mother's womb had been discussed and practiced for the safety of the child, with both legal and religious implications. After Rousset's work, medieval tales about children who had survived the operation came back into consideration in medical and religious texts in order to convince readers of the possibility of a successful "caesarean section" on a dead woman. These children were actually unordinary. They were saints or kings and, in the Middle Ages, their survival was perceived as a miraculous event. In the same period different kinds miracle tales related to the “caesarean section” were written, and some also included the opening of the living mother's womb. The article aims at analysing these stories in the cultural context of their writing, taking into account coeval medical obstetrical knowledge, as well as dissertations (in both religious and legal fields) and legends dedicated to the theme of the opening of the pregnant woman's womb.