I miracoli del parto: personaggi e rituali nelle fonti agiografiche tra XIII e XVI secolo

Abstract

It is not always easy to reconstruct the childbirth scene correctly, and the personalities and actions of those assisting labouring women during the Middle Ages can also remain ambiguous. In order elucidate the subject of childbirth, the topic must to be approached through the lens of anthropology, religion and medicine. In particular, it is possible to gather new information through the analysis of hagiographical texts (canonization processes and libri miraculorum ) – some of which are still unpublished – dating from the thirteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth century, in which the survival of either mother or child is often viewed as a miracle. These sources are fundamental to the history of women’s health care and childbirth in late Middle Ages.