Pre-modern Gynecological Knowledge in Translation
- Date
- 28 April 2026, 13:15–15:00
- Location
- Blåsenhus, 11:128
- Type
- Seminar
- Lecturer
- Larisa Ficulle Santini; Micaela Brembilla; Matts Olovsson; Sonny Larsson
- Organiser
- Milan Vukasinovic
- Contact person
- Milan Vukasinovic
The Retracing Connections research programme and the Uppsala University Centre for Medical Humanities invite you to an interdisciplinary seminar on the issues of production, transmission and use of gynecological knowledge across late antique and medieval societies. The speakers will present and interpret fragments of Greek and Latin traditions that were focused on the study and practice of female sexual and reproductive health. They shed light on the complex spectrum of premodern gynecological theorists and practitioners, from formally-trained (male) physicians, to midwifes, herbalists, spiritual and religious actors. They also trace the itineraries of diverse forms of gynecological knowledge across languages and time. Respondents will provide critical perspectives on these materials from the point of view of contemporary medical and pharmacological knowledge and practice.
Byzantine Fertility Control: The Transmission of Knowledge
Fertility control practices—particularly contraception and abortion—were known in the Eastern Roman Empire throughout Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. While gynecological treatises reveal male physicians’ technical engagement with the regulation of reproduction, legal and liturgical texts point to women’s participation in and accountability for fertility control, including the preparation and use of abortifacients. This study asks who held reproductive knowledge, who required it, and aims to trace its largely invisible movements.
Larisa Ficulle Santini is a postdoctoral researcher at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and Principal Investigator of the FWF-ESPRIT Project “Fertility Control in Byzantium: Women’s Reproductive Agency in the Eastern Roman Empire”.
“All these things we reject” – Standardized knowledge and folkloric practices in Late Antique manuals of gynecology
The paper explores the relationship between the normative and standardized knowledge selected by Late Antique manuals of gynecology, and the folkloric practices, which were officially refused by literature but still present both in society at large and in those very texts. The primarily focus is Mustio’s Gynaecia, a treatise on gynecology probably written in 6th century CE North Africa, but similar texts will be brought into a comparative discussion.
Micaela Brembilla graduated in Latin Linguistics at Università Statale di Milano in 2020, under the supervision of Paola Francesca Moretti. She defended her PhD thesis, entitled Prolegomena to a New Critical Edition of Mustio's Gynaecia at Uppsala University in December 2025. She is currently working on the production of the critical edition, while deepening her research on female participation in Late Antique medical environment, women’s medical education and midwives’ folkloric and practical knowledge.
RESPONDENTS:
Matts Olovsson is a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Uppsala University Department of Women’s and Children’s Health and Senior Consultant at Uppsala University Hospital.
Sonny Larsson is a licensed pharmacist with a PhD in pharmacognosy (the science of identifying, use and development of drugs from natural origin) from Uppsala University. He is currently an assessor of efficacy and safety for herbal medicinal products at the Swedish Medical Products Agency.