Lyle Massey

This project examines the depiction of sex difference in early modern illustrated anatomical and obstetrical atlases. Filled with woodcuts and engravings that operate within the triad of anatomy, sex and gender, these atlases had a profound effect on emergent, modern understandings of the human body, and also helped shape the reception and interpretation of empiricism in medicine. Building on recent work in gender studies and history of science, this study employs the problem of sex difference to engage wider 16th-, 17th- and 18th-century debates concerning the efficacy of scientific imagery. In the process it explores pressing questions regarding the epistemological role that pictures played in early modern natural philosophy and incipient science.