Introduction: Infertility in Medieval and Early Modern Medicine

Soc Hist Med (2016) 29 (2): 211-223.doi: 10.1093/shm/hkv141First published online: April 6, 2016

1. Daphna Oren-Magidor* and 
2. Catherine Rider**

1. ↵*Daphna Oren-Magidor, Fellow, Martin Buber Society of Fellows, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mandel School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Rooms 321, 322 Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, 91905 Israel. E-mail: Daphna.oren-magidor@mail.huji.ac.il
2. ↵**Catherine Rider, Senior Lecturer, Department of History, University of Exeter, Amory Building, Rennes Drive, Streatham Campus, Exeter EX4 4RJ.

Abstract

Although the history of pregnancy and childbirth have been studied extensively in recent decades, infertility has received less historical attention, especially for the pre-modern period. This collection makes steps towards filling this gap. The introduction offers some insights on the significance of the history of infertility to scholarship on gender relations and the construction of gendered identities, midwifery and reproductive medicine, and the history of the family. It further offers some context and background to the history of infertility by briefly surveying how premodern medicine explained fertility problems and sought to treat them, and the social dimensions of infertility in this period. In addition, it highlights key themes in the articles to follow.

Key words

• infertility
 
• reproduction
 
• historiography
 
• gender

• © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for the Social History of Medicine. All rights reserved.