Articles
79 articles exploring the history of medicine, gender, and the body.
Was the "Worst Nun in History" in Love with a Woman?
Sor Juana's love poems to the Vicereine of New Spain are intense, intimate, and still debated by scholars centuries later.
The Dark Family Secret Hidden Inside The Red Shoes
How Andersen's childhood, class shame, and strict Lutheran faith shaped his darkest fairy tale.
Why The Secret Agent is the Most Important Brazilian Film Right Now
Two Brazilian historians explore Kleber Mendonça Filho's The Secret Agent and Brazil's unfinished reckoning with its military dictatorship.
What Hamnet Gets Right (And Historians Got Wrong)
Did parents in the past love their children? Explore the historical debate on parental love and grief that Hamnet brings to life so powerfully.
She Became a Nun Just to Avoid Marriage (and Read Books)
Meet Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the 'worst nun in history'—who chose the convent over marriage to build a library and defend women's right to learn.
Below Stairs at Christmas: A Victorian Servant Speaks
Read Hannah Cullwick's 1863 diary—a Victorian maid-of-all-work reveals the exhausting reality of Christmas below stairs.
The Business of Virginity in 18th-Century London
Discover how 18th-century sex workers and madams manufactured virginity repeatedly, using astringents, blood, and performance to deceive clients.
The Midwife’s Ghost: A Murder Ballad from 1680
Discover the haunting 1680 ballad of a murdered midwife's ghost—sensationalized news set to music, recorded by Samuel Pepys himself.
Medieval True Crime: When a Corpse Solved Its Own Murder
In 1503 Switzerland, Hans Spiess was forced to touch his wife's corpse—if it bled, he was guilty. Discover the medieval bier ordeal trial.
The Censored Witches' Flying Potion (That Promised a "Lover")
Uncover Della Porta's infamous 16th-century witches' ointment recipe—hallucinogenic herbs, erotic visions, and Inquisition censorship.
Fake Virginity: The Painful Renaissance ‘Cures’ They Sold Women
Discover dangerous Renaissance recipes for faking virginity—blistering pills, leeches, and lead paint sold to women facing ruin without wedding-night blood.
Before TikTok: History's ORIGINAL Influencers
From Versailles courtiers to Black dandies and salonnières—discover how history's original influencers shaped culture through self-fashioning.
How Water Cures Revolutionised Medicine in the 16th Century
Discover Renaissance spa culture—from fertility baths in Naples to Leonardo Fioravanti's water cures that challenged traditional medicine.
Hypocras: The Spiced Wine Medieval Doctors Prescribed as Medicine
Hypocras was served at royal banquets and prescribed by physicians. The history of the spiced wine that blurred the line between medicine and pleasure.
How Latin America Shaped Germ Theory
Discover how Latin American scientists pioneered mosquito transmission theory and disease eradication—decades before European recognition.
The Yellow Wallpaper: The Medical History Behind Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Story
Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote The Yellow Wallpaper as a response to the rest cure. The real medical context behind one of literature's most unsettling stories.
Urine Tests in the Renaissance: How Doctors Diagnosed Pregnancy and Fertility
Centuries before modern pregnancy tests, physicians examined urine colour, sediment, and even mixed it with wine. The strange science of Renaissance uroscopy.
I'm Still Here: The History You Need to Know
Explore Brazil's military dictatorship (1964-1985), the story of Eunice Paiva, and the cultural resistance that shaped the film I'm Still Here.
Abaporu and the Anthropophagic Movement: How Brazil Redefined Modern Art
Tarsila do Amaral's Abaporu became Brazil's most iconic painting. The story of the Anthropophagic Movement that 'devoured' European art and made it Brazilian.
Ephelia: Unmasking a Seventeenth-Century Feminist Voice
Uncover Ephelia, the mysterious 17th-century poet who challenged gender norms with bold, erotic verse—was she Joan Philips or someone else entirely?
Tudor Mince Pies: A Taste of Christmas Past
Discover Tudor mince pies—filled with meat, spices, and symbolism, shaped like mangers to honor the Nativity. A recipe for Christmas past.
Birth Trays in Renaissance Italy and Motherhood
After the Black Death devastated Italy, ornate birth trays celebrated motherhood and encouraged childbirth—discover their art, ritual, and symbolism.
St Agatha: The Sicilian Martyr Honoured with Breast-Shaped Pastries
Tortured under Roman persecution for refusing marriage, Saint Agatha became one of Sicily’s most venerated saints — and inspired one of its most unusual desserts.
Dracula and the History of Blood Transfusions: Science, Sex, and Victorian Anxiety
Bram Stoker wrote Dracula as blood transfusion was becoming real medicine. How the novel reflects Victorian fears about science, sexuality, and women's bodies.
17th Century "Intuitive Eating": Paracelsus and Digestion
Discover how Paracelsian medicine revolutionized 17th-century diet advice, empowering people to trust their bodies over doctors' rules.
What were the "Non-Naturals"?
Learn about the six non-naturals—air, food, sleep, exercise, evacuation, and emotions—that shaped preventive medicine for centuries.
Alchemy in the Renaissance: The Mysterious Isabella Cortese
Uncover Isabella Cortese, the enigmatic 16th-century alchemist whose bestselling book challenged tradition and championed women's knowledge.
Renaissance Fitness: Exercise Rediscovery
Did Renaissance Italy rediscover exercise? Explore Girolamo Mercuriale's 'lost art' and how ancient Greek fitness was revived in the 1500s.
Eaglestones: Historical Amulets for Childbirth
Discover eaglestones—ancient 'pregnant' geodes believed to protect women during childbirth, from Greek antiquity to 19th-century England.
Playtime in Tudor England: Toys, Games, and Childhood
From wooden dolls to hobby horses and brutal games—discover how Tudor children played, learned, and grew up in 16th-century England.
Caterina Sforza's Experiments: Alchemy, Medicine, and Power in Renaissance Italy
Caterina Sforza left behind over 450 recipes for medicines, cosmetics, and poisons. What her alchemical notebook reveals about Renaissance women and power.
5 More Brazilian Women Who Changed History
Meet Anita Garibaldi, Clarice Lispector, and three more remarkable Brazilian women who shaped history but remain largely unknown outside Brazil.
Green Sickness: A Historical Look at the 'Disease of Virgins'
Explore the mysterious disease of virgins that shaped medical control over young women from the 1550s to 1920s through marriage and motherhood.
5 Brazilian Women Who Changed History
From a 17th-century warrior to a modernist painter — five Brazilian women whose contributions were overlooked for centuries.
Golden Locks: Hair Care in the Renaissance Era
Discover Renaissance hair care—from dove droppings for hair loss to sun-bleaching on Venetian rooftops for that coveted golden blonde.
Hot Cross Buns: Discovering the Easter Treat's Rich History
From 14th-century St Albans Abbey to modern bakeries—discover the mystical origins, superstitions, and traditions behind hot cross buns.
Paracelsus: The Renaissance Physician Who Set Fire to Medical Tradition
He publicly burned Galen, dosed patients with mercury, and got exiled from Basel. The life and legacy of early modern medicine's most controversial figure.
Benedetta Carlini: Scandal, Mysticism, and Sex in a Renaissance Convent
Benedetta Carlini claimed visions, performed miracles, and married Christ in a ceremony. Then investigators uncovered her sexual relationship with another nun.
Fioravanti: Pioneering Surgeon-Alchemist of the Renaissance
Leonardo Fioravanti was called a Charlatan, a Poisoner, a Reformer, a Prophet, a Miracle-Worker, a Saviour, an Alchemist, and a Fraud.
The Medicine behind food – from starters to desserts
Discover why we eat soup first and cheese last—the humoral theory and Renaissance medicine shaped our modern meal structure.
Frankincense and Myrrh: From Ancient Medicine to the Nativity Story
Frankincense treated wounds and plague. Myrrh eased childbirth pain. Long before the Magi, these resins were among the ancient world's most valued medicines.
What Were Early Modern Beds Like?
From straw sacks to feather beds—how Renaissance sleeping arrangements revealed wealth, status, and inspired The Princess and the Pea.
What Made a 17th-Century Midwife Good at Her Job?
Percivall Willughby despised 17th-century midwives—but were his brutal accusations true? Explore what really made a good midwife in 1600s England.
Little Red Riding Hood and the Invisibility of Older Women
In early versions, Little Red Riding Hood ate her grandmother's flesh and escaped the wolf—explore menopause, aging, and female wisdom.
How to Clean Your Body in the Renaissance
Debunking the myth that Renaissance people were dirty—discover how Italians bathed, used perfumes, and maintained bodily hygiene.
The 'Queen of Hysterics' and 19th-Century Theatrical Hysteria
Meet Blanche Wittmann, the 'queen of hysterics' at Charcot's Salpêtrière Hospital, where medical demonstrations became theatrical spectacles.
Maternal Mortality and a Mother's Last Letter
Elizabeth Joceline's heartbreaking 1622 letter to her unborn child—a testament to maternal love and the perils of early modern childbirth.
What is the 'Doctrine of Signatures'?
Discover how Renaissance physicians believed plants revealed their healing powers through shape, color, and resemblance to body parts.
A Grip on the History of Forceps in Medicine
Discover how the Chamberlen family's secret obstetrical forceps revolutionized childbirth and transformed midwifery into modern obstetrics.
Eostre: The Spring Goddess Who Gave Easter Its Name
Did a Germanic spring goddess really give Easter its name? What the historical sources actually say about Eostre, and how her story was reinvented over centuries.
The Surprising Connection Between Freud and Greek Mythology
Discover how Freud used Greek myths like Oedipus to unlock the unconscious—and why ancient stories became the foundation of psychoanalysis.
Moderata Fonte and ‘The Woman Question’
In 1600 Venice, Moderata Fonte imagined seven women debating 'the woman question'—why do inferior men dominate women, and can it change?
The Fascinating World of Aphrodisiacs
From oysters to artichokes—discover how early modern aphrodisiacs were believed to enhance fertility, not just pleasure, linking lust to reproduction.
Why Do We Picture Witches as Old Women?
Why are witches always old women? Explore how menopause, humoral theory, and misogyny shaped the witch stereotype from medieval times to today.
What is the ‘Wandering Womb’?
Discover the ancient Greek theory of the 'wandering womb'—an animal inside an animal, moving through the body in search of moisture.
Holy Anorexia: Religious Women and Fasting
Discover 'holy anorexia'—how medieval women like St Catherine of Siena used extreme fasting as spiritual devotion, often to the point of death.
‘Extended’ Breastfeeding in the Elizabethan Period
Discover how Elizabethan children nursed until age three, using wormwood to wean—Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet reveals extended breastfeeding practices.
Isabella Cortese and Early Modern Female Alchemy
Meet Isabella Cortese, the Renaissance alchemist who told readers to stop studying old texts and follow her practical recipes instead.
Medusa, Vampires, and the Fear of the Female Body
From ancient Greece to Victorian Gothic, menstruation and female sexuality were cast as monstrous. How Medusa and the vampire reflect centuries of fear.
Wet Nurses in Early Modern Europe: The History of Breastfeeding and Motherhood
Most wealthy mothers didn't breastfeed their own children. The history of wet nursing, and why it sparked fierce moral debate for centuries.
Elizabeth I and Ageing: Lead Makeup, Wigs, and the Politics of Appearance
Elizabeth I's white lead makeup and red wigs weren't vanity — they were political tools. How the ageing queen managed her image in an era that feared decay.
Why Did People Try to Induce Menstruation in the Past?
Discover 16th-century recipes to 'restore' menstruation—from roasted apples with nutmeg to herbal remedies that blurred the line with abortion.
The Surprising History of Abandoned Children
From Hansel and Gretel to foundling hospitals—explore the complex history of child abandonment and why 'unnatural mothers' weren't always villains.
Giving Birth in 17th-century England: A Tentative List
From groaning cakes to birthing stools—discover how 17th-century English families prepared for childbirth before hospitals and modern medicine.
Caterina Sforza: Defiance, Assassination, and Survival in Renaissance Italy
After her husband's murder, Caterina Sforza seized a fortress and confronted the conspirators alone. The story of her political survival against the odds.
Green Sickness and Virginity
Discover green sickness, the mysterious ailment that affected young women from the 1550s to 1920s—diagnosed by paleness, fainting, and virginity.
Abortion in the Medieval Church: How Catholic Teaching Changed Over Centuries
St Augustine and Thomas Aquinas didn't consider early abortion equivalent to murder. How medieval Canon Law drew distinctions the modern Church has abandoned.
Opening up the Mother: Caesarean Sections and the Romans
Was Julius Caesar born by caesarean section? Debunk the persistent myth and discover the real history of sectio in mortua—cutting the dead woman.
Humoral Theory: How the Four Humours Shaped Medicine for 2,000 Years
Blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile — the four humours formed the foundation of Western medicine from ancient Greece to the 18th century.
Female Genital Mutilation and ‘The West’: Past and Present
Explore FGM's hidden Western history—from medieval 'corrective' surgeries to Victorian clitoridectomies performed until the 1960s in America.
‘Let Nature Take its Course’: In Defence of ‘Gentle’ Midwifery
Meet Louise Bourgeois, the 16th-century French royal midwife who championed calm, gentle childbirth—centuries before modern birthing philosophy.
What is Gender History?
From Virginia Woolf's lament to second-wave feminism—discover how gender history emerged to challenge incomplete narratives and rewrite the past.
‘Neither, and yet both’: ‘Hermaphroditism’ and Binaries
Explore how intersex people challenged binary categories for centuries—from medieval medicine to early modern legal debates about gender and sex.
Not 'fit for child-bearing': Fatness and (In)fertility
Explore how fat bodies were pathologized from ancient Greece to the Renaissance, linking fatness to infertility and moral failure.
What is Cultural History?
Explore cultural history—not just the history of culture, but how people made meaning of their world through symbols, rituals, and everyday life.
(Un)sexing, Violence, and Women
Lady Macbeth asks to be 'unsexed' to commit murder—explore how Shakespeare linked femininity, menstruation, and violence in early modern England.
'Before she was in labour, she gave birth'
Explore how medieval theology imagined Mary's miraculous, painless childbirth—skipping labor entirely to preserve her virginal purity.
'…but the Art of Midwifry chiefly concern us'!
Jane Sharp's 1671 midwifery manual celebrated midwives as essential—yet centuries later, they still fight for respect and recognition.
What are Secrets of Women?
Discover 'secrets of women'—early modern medical recipes for conception, menstruation, and childbirth, hidden in the mysterious feminine body.
Was the "Worst Nun in History" in Love with a Woman?
Sor Juana's love poems to the Vicereine of New Spain are intense, intimate, and still debated by scholars centuries later.
The Dark Family Secret Hidden Inside The Red Shoes
How Andersen's childhood, class shame, and strict Lutheran faith shaped his darkest fairy tale.
Why The Secret Agent is the Most Important Brazilian Film Right Now
Two Brazilian historians explore Kleber Mendonça Filho's The Secret Agent and Brazil's unfinished reckoning with its military dictatorship.
What Hamnet Gets Right (And Historians Got Wrong)
Did parents in the past love their children? Explore the historical debate on parental love and grief that Hamnet brings to life so powerfully.
She Became a Nun Just to Avoid Marriage (and Read Books)
Meet Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the 'worst nun in history'—who chose the convent over marriage to build a library and defend women's right to learn.
Below Stairs at Christmas: A Victorian Servant Speaks
Read Hannah Cullwick's 1863 diary—a Victorian maid-of-all-work reveals the exhausting reality of Christmas below stairs.
The Business of Virginity in 18th-Century London
Discover how 18th-century sex workers and madams manufactured virginity repeatedly, using astringents, blood, and performance to deceive clients.
The Midwife’s Ghost: A Murder Ballad from 1680
Discover the haunting 1680 ballad of a murdered midwife's ghost—sensationalized news set to music, recorded by Samuel Pepys himself.
Medieval True Crime: When a Corpse Solved Its Own Murder
In 1503 Switzerland, Hans Spiess was forced to touch his wife's corpse—if it bled, he was guilty. Discover the medieval bier ordeal trial.
The Censored Witches' Flying Potion (That Promised a "Lover")
Uncover Della Porta's infamous 16th-century witches' ointment recipe—hallucinogenic herbs, erotic visions, and Inquisition censorship.
Fake Virginity: The Painful Renaissance ‘Cures’ They Sold Women
Discover dangerous Renaissance recipes for faking virginity—blistering pills, leeches, and lead paint sold to women facing ruin without wedding-night blood.
Before TikTok: History's ORIGINAL Influencers
From Versailles courtiers to Black dandies and salonnières—discover how history's original influencers shaped culture through self-fashioning.
How Water Cures Revolutionised Medicine in the 16th Century
Discover Renaissance spa culture—from fertility baths in Naples to Leonardo Fioravanti's water cures that challenged traditional medicine.
Hypocras: The Spiced Wine Medieval Doctors Prescribed as Medicine
Hypocras was served at royal banquets and prescribed by physicians. The history of the spiced wine that blurred the line between medicine and pleasure.
How Latin America Shaped Germ Theory
Discover how Latin American scientists pioneered mosquito transmission theory and disease eradication—decades before European recognition.
The Yellow Wallpaper: The Medical History Behind Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Story
Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote The Yellow Wallpaper as a response to the rest cure. The real medical context behind one of literature's most unsettling stories.
Urine Tests in the Renaissance: How Doctors Diagnosed Pregnancy and Fertility
Centuries before modern pregnancy tests, physicians examined urine colour, sediment, and even mixed it with wine. The strange science of Renaissance uroscopy.
I'm Still Here: The History You Need to Know
Explore Brazil's military dictatorship (1964-1985), the story of Eunice Paiva, and the cultural resistance that shaped the film I'm Still Here.
Abaporu and the Anthropophagic Movement: How Brazil Redefined Modern Art
Tarsila do Amaral's Abaporu became Brazil's most iconic painting. The story of the Anthropophagic Movement that 'devoured' European art and made it Brazilian.
Ephelia: Unmasking a Seventeenth-Century Feminist Voice
Uncover Ephelia, the mysterious 17th-century poet who challenged gender norms with bold, erotic verse—was she Joan Philips or someone else entirely?
Tudor Mince Pies: A Taste of Christmas Past
Discover Tudor mince pies—filled with meat, spices, and symbolism, shaped like mangers to honor the Nativity. A recipe for Christmas past.
Birth Trays in Renaissance Italy and Motherhood
After the Black Death devastated Italy, ornate birth trays celebrated motherhood and encouraged childbirth—discover their art, ritual, and symbolism.
St Agatha: The Sicilian Martyr Honoured with Breast-Shaped Pastries
Tortured under Roman persecution for refusing marriage, Saint Agatha became one of Sicily’s most venerated saints — and inspired one of its most unusual desserts.
Dracula and the History of Blood Transfusions: Science, Sex, and Victorian Anxiety
Bram Stoker wrote Dracula as blood transfusion was becoming real medicine. How the novel reflects Victorian fears about science, sexuality, and women's bodies.
17th Century "Intuitive Eating": Paracelsus and Digestion
Discover how Paracelsian medicine revolutionized 17th-century diet advice, empowering people to trust their bodies over doctors' rules.
What were the "Non-Naturals"?
Learn about the six non-naturals—air, food, sleep, exercise, evacuation, and emotions—that shaped preventive medicine for centuries.
Alchemy in the Renaissance: The Mysterious Isabella Cortese
Uncover Isabella Cortese, the enigmatic 16th-century alchemist whose bestselling book challenged tradition and championed women's knowledge.
Renaissance Fitness: Exercise Rediscovery
Did Renaissance Italy rediscover exercise? Explore Girolamo Mercuriale's 'lost art' and how ancient Greek fitness was revived in the 1500s.
Eaglestones: Historical Amulets for Childbirth
Discover eaglestones—ancient 'pregnant' geodes believed to protect women during childbirth, from Greek antiquity to 19th-century England.
Playtime in Tudor England: Toys, Games, and Childhood
From wooden dolls to hobby horses and brutal games—discover how Tudor children played, learned, and grew up in 16th-century England.
Caterina Sforza's Experiments: Alchemy, Medicine, and Power in Renaissance Italy
Caterina Sforza left behind over 450 recipes for medicines, cosmetics, and poisons. What her alchemical notebook reveals about Renaissance women and power.
5 More Brazilian Women Who Changed History
Meet Anita Garibaldi, Clarice Lispector, and three more remarkable Brazilian women who shaped history but remain largely unknown outside Brazil.
Green Sickness: A Historical Look at the 'Disease of Virgins'
Explore the mysterious disease of virgins that shaped medical control over young women from the 1550s to 1920s through marriage and motherhood.
5 Brazilian Women Who Changed History
From a 17th-century warrior to a modernist painter — five Brazilian women whose contributions were overlooked for centuries.
Golden Locks: Hair Care in the Renaissance Era
Discover Renaissance hair care—from dove droppings for hair loss to sun-bleaching on Venetian rooftops for that coveted golden blonde.
Hot Cross Buns: Discovering the Easter Treat's Rich History
From 14th-century St Albans Abbey to modern bakeries—discover the mystical origins, superstitions, and traditions behind hot cross buns.
Paracelsus: The Renaissance Physician Who Set Fire to Medical Tradition
He publicly burned Galen, dosed patients with mercury, and got exiled from Basel. The life and legacy of early modern medicine's most controversial figure.
Benedetta Carlini: Scandal, Mysticism, and Sex in a Renaissance Convent
Benedetta Carlini claimed visions, performed miracles, and married Christ in a ceremony. Then investigators uncovered her sexual relationship with another nun.
Fioravanti: Pioneering Surgeon-Alchemist of the Renaissance
Leonardo Fioravanti was called a Charlatan, a Poisoner, a Reformer, a Prophet, a Miracle-Worker, a Saviour, an Alchemist, and a Fraud.
The Medicine behind food – from starters to desserts
Discover why we eat soup first and cheese last—the humoral theory and Renaissance medicine shaped our modern meal structure.
Frankincense and Myrrh: From Ancient Medicine to the Nativity Story
Frankincense treated wounds and plague. Myrrh eased childbirth pain. Long before the Magi, these resins were among the ancient world's most valued medicines.
What Were Early Modern Beds Like?
From straw sacks to feather beds—how Renaissance sleeping arrangements revealed wealth, status, and inspired The Princess and the Pea.
What Made a 17th-Century Midwife Good at Her Job?
Percivall Willughby despised 17th-century midwives—but were his brutal accusations true? Explore what really made a good midwife in 1600s England.
Little Red Riding Hood and the Invisibility of Older Women
In early versions, Little Red Riding Hood ate her grandmother's flesh and escaped the wolf—explore menopause, aging, and female wisdom.
How to Clean Your Body in the Renaissance
Debunking the myth that Renaissance people were dirty—discover how Italians bathed, used perfumes, and maintained bodily hygiene.
The 'Queen of Hysterics' and 19th-Century Theatrical Hysteria
Meet Blanche Wittmann, the 'queen of hysterics' at Charcot's Salpêtrière Hospital, where medical demonstrations became theatrical spectacles.
Maternal Mortality and a Mother's Last Letter
Elizabeth Joceline's heartbreaking 1622 letter to her unborn child—a testament to maternal love and the perils of early modern childbirth.
What is the 'Doctrine of Signatures'?
Discover how Renaissance physicians believed plants revealed their healing powers through shape, color, and resemblance to body parts.
A Grip on the History of Forceps in Medicine
Discover how the Chamberlen family's secret obstetrical forceps revolutionized childbirth and transformed midwifery into modern obstetrics.
Eostre: The Spring Goddess Who Gave Easter Its Name
Did a Germanic spring goddess really give Easter its name? What the historical sources actually say about Eostre, and how her story was reinvented over centuries.
The Surprising Connection Between Freud and Greek Mythology
Discover how Freud used Greek myths like Oedipus to unlock the unconscious—and why ancient stories became the foundation of psychoanalysis.
Moderata Fonte and ‘The Woman Question’
In 1600 Venice, Moderata Fonte imagined seven women debating 'the woman question'—why do inferior men dominate women, and can it change?
The Fascinating World of Aphrodisiacs
From oysters to artichokes—discover how early modern aphrodisiacs were believed to enhance fertility, not just pleasure, linking lust to reproduction.
Why Do We Picture Witches as Old Women?
Why are witches always old women? Explore how menopause, humoral theory, and misogyny shaped the witch stereotype from medieval times to today.
What is the ‘Wandering Womb’?
Discover the ancient Greek theory of the 'wandering womb'—an animal inside an animal, moving through the body in search of moisture.
Holy Anorexia: Religious Women and Fasting
Discover 'holy anorexia'—how medieval women like St Catherine of Siena used extreme fasting as spiritual devotion, often to the point of death.
‘Extended’ Breastfeeding in the Elizabethan Period
Discover how Elizabethan children nursed until age three, using wormwood to wean—Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet reveals extended breastfeeding practices.
Isabella Cortese and Early Modern Female Alchemy
Meet Isabella Cortese, the Renaissance alchemist who told readers to stop studying old texts and follow her practical recipes instead.
Medusa, Vampires, and the Fear of the Female Body
From ancient Greece to Victorian Gothic, menstruation and female sexuality were cast as monstrous. How Medusa and the vampire reflect centuries of fear.
Wet Nurses in Early Modern Europe: The History of Breastfeeding and Motherhood
Most wealthy mothers didn't breastfeed their own children. The history of wet nursing, and why it sparked fierce moral debate for centuries.
Elizabeth I and Ageing: Lead Makeup, Wigs, and the Politics of Appearance
Elizabeth I's white lead makeup and red wigs weren't vanity — they were political tools. How the ageing queen managed her image in an era that feared decay.
Why Did People Try to Induce Menstruation in the Past?
Discover 16th-century recipes to 'restore' menstruation—from roasted apples with nutmeg to herbal remedies that blurred the line with abortion.
The Surprising History of Abandoned Children
From Hansel and Gretel to foundling hospitals—explore the complex history of child abandonment and why 'unnatural mothers' weren't always villains.
Giving Birth in 17th-century England: A Tentative List
From groaning cakes to birthing stools—discover how 17th-century English families prepared for childbirth before hospitals and modern medicine.
Caterina Sforza: Defiance, Assassination, and Survival in Renaissance Italy
After her husband's murder, Caterina Sforza seized a fortress and confronted the conspirators alone. The story of her political survival against the odds.
Green Sickness and Virginity
Discover green sickness, the mysterious ailment that affected young women from the 1550s to 1920s—diagnosed by paleness, fainting, and virginity.
Abortion in the Medieval Church: How Catholic Teaching Changed Over Centuries
St Augustine and Thomas Aquinas didn't consider early abortion equivalent to murder. How medieval Canon Law drew distinctions the modern Church has abandoned.
Opening up the Mother: Caesarean Sections and the Romans
Was Julius Caesar born by caesarean section? Debunk the persistent myth and discover the real history of sectio in mortua—cutting the dead woman.
Humoral Theory: How the Four Humours Shaped Medicine for 2,000 Years
Blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile — the four humours formed the foundation of Western medicine from ancient Greece to the 18th century.
Female Genital Mutilation and ‘The West’: Past and Present
Explore FGM's hidden Western history—from medieval 'corrective' surgeries to Victorian clitoridectomies performed until the 1960s in America.
‘Let Nature Take its Course’: In Defence of ‘Gentle’ Midwifery
Meet Louise Bourgeois, the 16th-century French royal midwife who championed calm, gentle childbirth—centuries before modern birthing philosophy.
What is Gender History?
From Virginia Woolf's lament to second-wave feminism—discover how gender history emerged to challenge incomplete narratives and rewrite the past.
‘Neither, and yet both’: ‘Hermaphroditism’ and Binaries
Explore how intersex people challenged binary categories for centuries—from medieval medicine to early modern legal debates about gender and sex.
Not 'fit for child-bearing': Fatness and (In)fertility
Explore how fat bodies were pathologized from ancient Greece to the Renaissance, linking fatness to infertility and moral failure.
What is Cultural History?
Explore cultural history—not just the history of culture, but how people made meaning of their world through symbols, rituals, and everyday life.
(Un)sexing, Violence, and Women
Lady Macbeth asks to be 'unsexed' to commit murder—explore how Shakespeare linked femininity, menstruation, and violence in early modern England.
'Before she was in labour, she gave birth'
Explore how medieval theology imagined Mary's miraculous, painless childbirth—skipping labor entirely to preserve her virginal purity.
'…but the Art of Midwifry chiefly concern us'!
Jane Sharp's 1671 midwifery manual celebrated midwives as essential—yet centuries later, they still fight for respect and recognition.
What are Secrets of Women?
Discover 'secrets of women'—early modern medical recipes for conception, menstruation, and childbirth, hidden in the mysterious feminine body.