Frauenaufklärung im Spätmittelalter : eine philologisch-medizinhistorische Untersuchung und Edition des gynäkologisch-obstetrischen GKS 1657 Kopenhagen

Sammanfattning: This dissertation consists of two parts. Part I deals with analyses of the textstructure, the content and the possible sources of GKS. 1657.Part II is a critical edition of manuscript GKS 1657 in the Royal Library in Copenhagen. The manuscript dates from the 15th century and is written in the southern Dutch dialect of Brabant but with touches of Flemish. It is an instruction manual for women and deals with pregnancy, childbirth, child-care, menstruation and women's diseases. It is characterized by a frank view on sexuality and shuns value judgements in its attitude towards women. In addition to this neutral, perhaps even progressive attitude, the manuscript also contains scraps of popular magic and cabbala. GKS 1657 is rich in both language and content and provides important documentation of women's culture.In the study GKS 1657 is compared with MS 593, which is from the same period and region. MS 593 also deals with menstruation, women's diseases and, briefly, with childcare, but not with pregnancy and childbirth. Although the subject matter of MS 593 bears in certain parts, a similarity with that of GKS 1657, it is presented differently. MS 593 also lacks the marginal notes indicating that GKS 1657 was in use over a period of 150 - 200 years. The comparison shows the complexity of such manuscripts as well as the inadvisability of attaching simple labels to attitudes in any particular epoch.A major aim of the study is to make manuscript GKS 1657 availible to readers other than those normally interested in medieval texts and to stimulate further interdiscip­linary studies.