Project description
Gender and healing in the Habsburg court
In early modern Europe, medicine was about more than just treatments. It was also about identity, status and relationships. However, little is known about how gender influenced health care. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the GendMedHab project compares male and female members of the Habsburg family in the 16th and 17th centuries in terms of experiences, treatment negotiations and interactions with physicians. Specifically, it looks at how gender affected trust, participation and outcomes of medical encounters using family letters and doctors’ reports. The project also shows how health-related issues influenced both the self-image of the Habsburg family members and the political and social structure of the dynasty by fusing the study of emotions, gender and medical history.
Objective
The present project aims to reach a full comprehension of early modern medical encounter, exploring how gender differentiation played out at all its levels. In particular, the research establishes a comparison, which has not so far made, between male and female patients in terms of relationship with the physician, trust in ancient medical tradition, ability to negotiate cures, and impact on the outcomes of medical visit. The project also casts light on the women’s self-image as patients, investigating to what extent they participated in the diagnostic and therapeutic processes, and providing a detailed picture of their approach to health, illness and the body.
In particular, the research focuses on a relevant case study – the imperial Habsburg family in the 16th and 17th centuries –, and relies on a broad variety of archival patient-centred sources, such as the letters of private character the male and female members of the family sent, and their correspondence with the attending doctors. The medical consultation papers physicians compiled for the family members will be also examined.
To achieve the objectives mentioned above, both the social context of the Habsburg courts – political and cultural organisms –, and the factors which influenced the medical practice there – connections between the sovereign’s health and politics, the interdenominational conflicts of the period, the high social status of the Habsburg patients, the hierarchized family structure, and the family members’ different degree of autonomy – will be considered.
By intertwining social history of medicine, gender history, history of material culture, and history of emotions, the research will unveil how medical practice impacted on the imperial family’s self-determination and identity both as a collective political body and as individuals.
The project will be conducted at Istituto Storico Italo-Germanico (ISIG) of Fondazione Bruno Kessler of Trento (Italy), a European leading research institute
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01
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38122 Trento
Italy
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