science and medicine in early modern venice 723
set broken bones, treat wounds, and medicate abscesses and skin diseases.
Because their cures were more accessible and less expensive than those of
physicians, however, surgeons routinely treated a much broader range of
illnesses than they were officially empowered to resolve.
Midwives, though near the bottom of the medical hierarchy, performed
tasks that far outstripped their official functions.64 Beyond assisting at
childbirth and delivering virtually all of Venice’s newborns, midwives
treated a wide variety of female complaints. although the treatment of
women’s disorders was by no means the exclusive domain of midwives,
men tended to cede women’s reproductive health to women on grounds of
modesty. Midwives were also charged with washing and dressing the dead
in preparation for burial. in addition, midwives often testified as experts
in marital disputes—for instance, to determine by tactile examination
whether a marriage had been consummated, whether a married woman
was still a virgin, or whether a man was impotent.65 Theirs were the hands,
along with those of the barbers, that touched the body, whether alive or
dead, whether chaste or fallen, whether dirty or covered with sores.
although midwives were required to report all births within a day of
their delivery, until the 17th century the profession went largely unregu-
lated—birth being considered a private matter among women. in 1624,
citing concern over infant mortality, the Health office passed the first of
a series regulations meant to control midwives.66 The law required that
all midwives be examined and registered on the official midwives’ roll.
in order to receive a license, midwives had to provide testimony from
the midwife under whom they had apprenticed and had to be exam-
ined by one doctor and “two women expert in the profession” who had
already been approved by the Health office.67 Subsequent legislation
furthered the medicalization of midwifery in Venice.
Charlatans, Empirics, and Popular HealersFor most common ailments, Venetians rarely bothered to call a physician.
in addition to physicians and surgeons, unlettered empirics of all kinds
64 nadia Maria Filippini “levatrici e ostetricanti a Venezia tra sette e ottocento,”
Quaderni storici 58 (1985), 149–80.
65 Joanne M. Ferraro, Marriage Wars in Late Renaissance Venice (oxford, 2001), pp. 91–95.
66 nelli-elena Vanzan Marchini, I Mali e i rimedi della Serenissima (Venice, 1995), p. 131.
67 nelli-elena Vanzan Marchini, Le Leggi di sanità della Repubblica di Venezia, 4 vols
(Vicenza, 1995–2003), 1:431.