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Infertility in medieval and early modern Europe : premodern views on childlessness / Regina Toepfer.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Toepfer, Regina, author.
- Language:
- English
- German
- Subjects (All):
- Childlessness--Europe--History.
- Childlessness.
- Infertility--Europe--History.
- Infertility.
- Europe--Social conditions.
- Europe.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (x, 255 pages) : illustrations (some color)
- Place of Publication:
- Cham : Palgrave Macmillan, [2022]
- Contents:
- Intro
- Contents
- List of Figures
- 1 Introduction
- The Relevance of Infertility: Current Complaints and Historical Cases
- Analytical Perspectives: Questions of Identity and Critique of Normativity
- Key Concept: On the Plurality and Diversity of (In)Fertility
- Notes
- 2 Theology: Salvation Stories of (In)Fertility
- Hebrew Bible Stories: Infertility as Disgrace
- Divine Mandate to Multiply
- Rachel's and Hannah's Childlessness
- Onan's Refusal to Reproduce
- Promises for the Barren
- New Testament Statements: Critique of Family
- Miraculous Birth in Luke
- Jesus' Critique of Family
- Paul's Ideal of Chastity
- Patristic and Scholastic Doctrine: Sex and Sin
- Reformulations of the Mandate to Multiply
- Recommendations for Reducing Pleasure
- Required Reproductive Readiness
- Josephite Marriage as a Model
- Luther's Doctrine of Marriage: Fertility as an Urge
- The Elemental Urge
- Concepts of Marriage and Gender
- Prospects
- 3 Medicine: Body Concepts of (In)Fertility
- Premodern Notions of Reproduction: Seed Theories and Teachings on Sex
- Ancient Knowledge of Procreation
- Medieval Knowledge of Conception
- Sex as Preventive Health Care
- Medical Diagnoses: Physical Causes of Childlessness
- Imbalances in the Body
- Sterility Tests
- Seven Barriers to Reproduction
- Nature and Morality
- Methods of Promoting Fertility: Hormone Therapy and Fertility Girdles
- Sophisticated Remedies
- Baths, Incenses, and Ointments
- Animal Testicles and Human Milk
- Medicine and Magic
- The Medicalized Sex: 'Being a Woman' Equals 'Being Ill'
- Pathologizing Women
- Anne of Bohemia and Her Longing for Children
- Bikini Medicine in the Middle Ages
- 4 Jurisprudence: Laws on (In)Fertility
- Ecclesiastical Marriage Law: Impotent Men and Women Who Want Children.
- Impotence as an Impediment to Marriage
- Women Longing for Children
- Evidence of Impotence
- Potency Problems of a Different Kind
- Inheritance Law: Childless Testators and Chosen Children
- Privileged Heirs
- Child or Church?
- Adoption, Affatomy, and Anw|nschung
- Criminal Law: Castrated Men and Complaining Women
- The Value of Fertility
- Castration as Punishment
- Women's Complaints about Castration
- 5 Demonology: Metaphysics of (In)Fertility
- Demonic Magic: Impotence from Love's Revenge
- The Power of Evil
- Narrative evidence
- Penis Stealing
- Barbara's Confession
- Demonic Means: Legal and Illegal Ways to Have a Child
- The Demonologists' Diagnosis
- Prohibited means
- Rooting Out the Causes
- Demonic Infertility: The Devil's Reproductive Techniques
- Union With the Devil
- Demonic Semen Transfer
- Defining fatherhood
- Demonic Fertility: The Devil's and Witches' Children
- Phantom Pregnancy
- Changelings
- Family Stigma
- 6 Ethics: Ideals of Life with (In)Fertility
- Marriage Laments: The Fortune of the Childfree
- Reproductive Concerns Circulate
- Freedom Through Childlessness
- Abelard at the Crossroads
- The Ambivalence of Parenthood
- Wedding Speeches: The Fortune of Parents
- Children as an Investment in the Future
- Family Happiness and the Joys of Fatherhood
- Children as Treasure and Bond of Love
- Having Children as a Salvific Experience
- Infertility Catechesis: The Misfortune of Childless Women
- Pastoral Care for Infertile Women
- Advice to Accept Stigma
- 7 Epilogue
- Uneven Visibility: Childless Men and Childless Women
- Narrating Childlessness: Stories Told and Stories Untold
- Comparative (In)Fertility Research: Analogies and Differences
- Bibliography
- Index.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI Available via World Wide Web.
- Online resource; title from PDF title page (SpringerLink, viewed December 19, 2022).
- Local Notes:
- Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Dr. Ada H. Lewis Book Fund.
- ISBN:
- 9783031089770
- 3031089774
- Publisher Number:
- 99992523462
- Access Restriction:
- Restricted for use by site license.
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