The treatment of “monstrous births” in 17th-century English obstetrical treatises: between the prodigy narrative and the scientific text

Abstract

This paper analyses the treatment of the so-called “monstrous births” in English obstetrical treatises written during the 17^th century. The study we carry out suggests that we can distinguish a first group of treatises which include detailed descriptions accompanied by illustrations, typical of ballads and pamphlets of a popular nature and with marked sensationalistic purposes, and a second group of treatises in which a genuine interest in this type of malformations reveals the scientific intent of the medical literature of the time.