ABSTRACT
The history of women’s bodies is one of shifting perceptions. Theoreticians, such as Hippocrates and Aristotle, developed various systems to explain the structure and function of female anatomy. They contemplated not only the differences between male and female, but also the characteristics and functions that made the female body unique. Although not alone in their quest to understand the female body, Hippocrates and Aristotle were the most influential of their time period, and their ideas were the most persistent in the development of medieval medicine. Aristotelian logic, especially its use of categories, would influence medieval perceptions of the female body and the types of female bodies that were possible, leading to the construction of two dialectical categories: the miraculous body of the virgin, and the maleficent body of the witch. The medieval belief that body and soul were integrated meant that female biology was thought to have spiritual consequences and, reciprocally, that the state of a woman’s soul could affect the functioning and composition of her physical body.
