Breasts and Eggs: Reproductive anatomy in Early Modern Amsterdam

Abstract

In Amsterdam in the late 17th to early 18th century, the world flocked towards the anatomical museum of Frederik Ruysch. A large part of Ruysch’s collection consisted of anatomical preparations related to sex, conception, and generation. Many people contributed to the existence of the museum aside from the anatomist himself; the buyers of the preparations, the visitors, the midwives who brought Ruysch bodies, and of course the pregnant people. My research focused on how much individual actors around Ruysch contributed to the spread of knowledge concerning reproductive anatomy. My research concerns insofar medical models of pregnant bodies became public knowledge and what the social consequences were for pregnant people in the past. The focus on the social dimension is important because the social history of pregnancy is as complicated as it is culturally relevant. By focusing on the people around the anatomist rather than Ruysch himself I hoped to fill a lacuna in current research. Taking a bird’s eye view on the topic of reproductive anatomy in Amsterdam in the 1700’s I found that concerning the distribution of knowledge dead bodies had more agency than living bodies. I also found that some knowledge was deemed fit for the public, while other information was kept hidden on purpose out of either virtuous motives or financial concerns. Financial concerns also shaped the presentation of the museum, which heavily relied on a communal imagination of vanitas. I found that pregnant bodies became public in 18th-century Amsterdam, which mainly disadvantaged pregnant people but also gave them new opportunities.