ichnis der Judenbürger zu Nürnberg, 1338,” Die Israelitische Bevölkerung der deutschen Städte 3
(1893/4):9–14.
- As they were widows, they were listed as individual taxpayers. There might well have been
additional midwives in the community who were not widows and, consequently, were not listed. - This seems to be a general feature of midwives in the Christian sources.
- The literature on this period has grown tremendously over the past years. See, for exam-
ple: Merry E. Wiesner, Working Women in Renaissance Germany(New Brunswick, 1986), 55–73;
Hess, “Midwifery Practice,” 67. - Weisner, Working Women, 56–60.
- One of the abilities often attributed to midwives in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Europe
is their literacy. However we do not know if medieval midwives, Jewish or Christian, could read.
See Weisner, ibid., 55–73. Already in ancient times, doctors recommended that midwives know
how to read. For example: Souranus’ Gynecology, ed. Oswei Temkin (Baltimore, 1956), 5–7. The
question of the literacy of Jewish women demands further investigation. See: Judith Baskin, “Some
Parallels in the Education of Medieval Jewish and Christian Women; Jewish History5(1991): 41–
52 and more recently Grossman, Pious and Rebellious, 277–82, 293–99. - Vivian Nutton, “Medicine in Medieval Western Europe 1000–1500,” in The Western
Medical Tradition 800 B.C. to A.D. 1800, eds. Lawrence Conrad et al. (Cambridge, 1995), 153– - He explains that some medieval medical treatises were purely theoretical with no base in
experience. - Barkai has described these texts and translated some of them in his work, Jewish Gyneco-
logical Texts; n. 62. - This book was published by Zusman Muntner in several volumes of the journal Korot,
1966–71. - Joseph Shatzmiller, “ ‘Doctors and Medical Practices in Germany around the Year 1200’:
The Evidence of Sefer Asaph,” PAAJR50(1983): 149–64. - See, for example, Korot3: 422, 532–5; 4: nos. 321–44, (pp.) 531–33; no. 1182, 618; nos.
1311–13, 644; 5: no. 650, 49; no. 696, 61; nos. 755, 166; nos. 914, 319; nos. 997, 444; nos. 1018,
137.For example: MS Parma Palatina 2342, fol. 262b–286b; MS Oxford Bodl., Opp. Add. 14
(1101), fol. 187a–b; Ms Oxford Bodl., Mich 9, (1531), fol. 121b.
- This manual was published at the end of the nineteenth century, supra n. 121. It was one
part of a new genre of practical manuals produced in Ashkenaz from the thirteenth century on-
ward. On this genre, see Israel Ta-Shma, “HaSifrut haHilkhatit haMikz·o’it beAshkenaz,” in Rit-
ual, Custom and Reality in Franco Germany, 1000–1350(Jerusalem, 1996), 96. - For a different opinion on the dating of the chapter, see Grossman, Pious and Rebellious,
203, n. 61. - A detailed analysis of these issues can be found in Baumgarten, “Midwives.”
- Lyndal Roper, Oedipus and the Devil: Witchcraft, Sexuality and Religion in Early Modern
Europe(London-New York, 1994), 199–225.
142.SHP, no. 380. It seems that it was the midwives who attended women using the mikve. Lit-
tle is known about medieval mikves and this subject certainly requires further inquiry. For pre-
liminary comments, see Shaye J. D. Cohen, “Purity, Piety and Polemic: Medieval Rabbinic De-
nunciation of ‘Incorrect’ Purification Practices,” in Women and Water: Menstruation in Jewish Life
and Law, ed. Rahel R. Wasserfall (Hanover N.H. and London, 1999), 82–100. - Rashi, Sotah 22b, s.v. “Kegon Yoh·ani bat Retavi.”
- MS Oxford, Bodl. Opp. 540 (1567), published by Dan, “Sippurim Demonologim,” 282
no. 13. Yoh·ani bat Retavi is mentioned in other medieval sources as well: R. Nathan b. Yeh·iel,
Sefer Arukh haShalem, ed. Alexander Kohut (Vienna, 1926), “Yoh·ani,” 4: 117–18; R. Nissim b.
Jacob of Kirouan, H·ibbur haYafe min haYeshu’a, trans. and introduction by H·aim Z. Hirshberg
(Jerusalem, 1954), 35–36.