Hermaphrodites and the understanding of sexual difference in the early seventeenth century

Abstract

In this paper, I compare the ways in which three seventeenth-century physi-cians, Rodrigo de Castro, Caspar Bauhin and Jean Riolan, dealt in their works with the anatomical and social problems posed by the hermaphroditic body. I show that early seventeenth-century medical discourses on hermaphrodites have recourse to a diverse synthesis of theories, sources and medical cases and that they are influenced by cultural anxieties over the disruptive power of sexual ambiguity.