1. Caesarean Birth in Medical Thought

Abstract

Caesarean birth had a place in medieval culture before it began to interest learned physicians. Medieval scholars interested in the ancient Romans and in the intricate problems of etymology occupied themselves with the question of the origin of Julius Caesar's name and whether he was born by Caesarean section; in addition, legends and miracles con­ cerning Caesarean birth became part of the popular imagination.1 Since the medieval ideas on Caesarean birth inherited from antiquity came from nonmedical sources, the operation did not appear in the canon of medical texts used by medieval physicians. It was not until the early fourteenth century that remarks on postmortem Caesarean sections be­ gan to emerge in medical treatises.