This article explores the history of popular terms for female anatomy in early modern France. When buried in the legal registers of the courts, the terms were part of the domain of local knowledge, accepted and employed as needed without remark. Their publication in Laurent Joubert's Erreurs populaires (1578) rendered their meaning and significance a matter of dispute and controversy. Some considered the vocabulary crude and morally corrupting. Others thought the terms were merely the obscure and muddled understanding of ignorant midwives--an attitude which justified their replacement with standardized medical terms. Still others thought Joubert might have fabricated them. During and after this debate, the terms surfaced in other printed sources, including both mildly pornographic materials and medical books intended for a popular audience. A close analysis of the terms suggests that they reflect the mentality which shaped the day-to-day realities of women's lives and women's own experience of their bodies.
French Historical Studies, the leading journal on the history of France, publishes articles, commentaries, and research notes on all periods of French history from the Middle Ages to the present. The journal's diverse format includes forums, review essays, special issues, and articles in French, as well as bilingual abstracts of the articles in each issue. Also featured are bibliographies of recent dissertations and books and announcements of fellowships, prizes, and conferences of interest to French historians. Special issues in preparation discuss recent perspectives on the history of Paris, colonialism and the writing of French history, and visual arts in the writing of French History.
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