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The Medieval Church · c. 1150–1160
Causes and Cures
Causae et Curae
Hildegard of Bingen · 1098–1179
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What it is
A medical handbook on the humours, digestion, sleep, conception, and remedies, including frank descriptions of sexual physiology from a woman's viewpoint.
Why it lasted
The only medieval medical treatise known to be written by a woman, and startling in its matter-of-factness.
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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