WOMEN AND MEDICINE · The role of women in the development of modern anatomy
FP6 — Marie Curie Actions (Human Resources and Mobility)
- Duration
- 2007-01-15 → 2009-01-14
- EU contribution
- €199,237
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- EIF
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Results in brief
Final Activity Report Summary - WOMEN AND MEDICINE (The Role of Women in the Development of Modern Anatomy)
This research has focused on the parallel lives of the eighteenth-century anatomical modellers Marie Marguerite Bihéron and Anna Morandi Manzolini. In particular, it has reconstructed the circumstances that made it possible for these women to gain anatomical authority and become famous medical practitioners. Research on manuscript and printed sources has revealed that while the work of both Bihéron and Morandi benefited from the special interest in anatomical collections manifested by eighteenth-century European audiences and influential patrons, their anatomical careers developed also thanks to the development of new trans-national networks of social, intellectual and commercial exchange. By considering the historical processes underpinning Bihéron and Morandi's access to the world of anatomical knowledge, this research enriches our understanding of the role of gender in the history of medicine. It also sheds new light on the identities and spaces of medical practice and the diversified world of medical practitioners that characterised the medical past.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
This research will reconstruct the role of two distinguished women, Marie Marguerite (also known as Marie Catherine) Biheron (17191795) and Anna Morandi Manzolini (17141774), in the development of the medical practice of anatomical modelling. Biheron and Morandi operated respectively in Bologna and Paris in the mid- eighteenth century and became renowned anatomists and anatomical modellers.Exploring the circumstances that made it possible for Biheron and Morandi to gain medical authority, this project aims at expanding our knowledge of the status and social role of women in the historical world of anatomy. Anatomical models in wax promised to provide accurate insights into the inner body.Regarded as potential replacements of the natural body, they offered a means to overcome traditional shortcomings related to the physical deterioration and the risks of contamination that characterised the setting of anatomical dissection. In the eyes of those who were involved in their commission, production and use, anatomical models were useful to the training of medical students and artists.At the same time, anatomical waxworks were regarded as curiosities as well as teaching objects, and participated in the grand display of artistic, natural, and religious specimens that made the lure of the Grand Tour.Concentrating on the work of Biheron and Morandi, I shall examine the circumstances in which their anatomical models became points of intersection between Grand Tour encounters, enlightened views of knowledge and sociability, and the emergence of new apparatuses for visualising and investigating the human body.The comparative analysis of the works and lives of Biheron and Morandi will enhance our understanding of the relationship between gender and anatomy, and will provide a particularly felicitous case for reconstructing the role of women in the making of medical knowledge.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE · PARISCoordinatorFrance
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union