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      • HARVEST
      • Electronic Theses and Dissertations
      • Graduate Theses and Dissertations
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      COLD AND WET, HOT AND DRY: THE KNOWING OF WOMAN’S KIND IN CHILDING, A FOURTEENTH CENTURY VERNACULAR OBSTETRICAL AND GYNECOLOGICAL TREATISE

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      Date
      2013-09-24
      Author
      Smith, Karen
      Type
      Thesis
      Degree Level
      Masters
      Metadata
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      Abstract
      This thesis presents a single witness edition of The Knowing of Woman’s Kind in Childing, which is a 14th century vernacular obstetrical and gynaecological treatise found in British Library MS Additional 12195. Purported to be emulating medical texts of French and Latin origin, The Knowing of Woman's Kind in Childing is “a novel fusing of several different texts and theoretical traditions into a single work” (Green, “Obstetrical” 64). The Knowing of Woman’s Kind in Childing is an important and significant medieval medical text because it has a self-identified female audience and a female-orientated medical focus. Accompanying notes and emendations from the four other extant witnesses are also presented: Oxford Bodley MS Douce 37 (SC 21611), Oxford MS Bodley 483 (SC 2062), Cambridge University Library MS Ii. 6. 33, and British Library MS Sloane 421A. This thesis explores the folklore of the traditional herbs, medicinals, and compounds used in the treatise. A comparison of the material appended to all five of the extant witnesses is presented in Appendix A; Appendix B lists the incidence of rubrication found in this edition; originating source material for the Knowing of Woman’s Kind in Childing is presented in Appendix C; and an alphabetical catalogue of medicinals, in four tables, can be found in Appendix D.
      Degree
      Master of Arts (M.A.)
      Department
      English
      Program
      English
      Supervisor
      Liu, Yin
      Committee
      Hynes, Peter; Klaassen, Frank; Robinson, Peter; Clark, Hillary
      Copyright Date
      September 2013
      URI
      http://hdl.handle.net/10388/ETD-2013-09-1236
      Subject
      medieval medicine
      medieval obstetrics
      medieval gynecology
      medieval medical recipes
      childbirth
      suffocation
      retention
      Trotula
      Non omnes quidem
      De viribus herbarum
      herbs
      Hindu-Arabic numbers
      alchemy
      Collections
      • Graduate Theses and Dissertations
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