Medieval Women's Guides to Food during Pregnancy: Origins, Texts, and Traditions

The dietary guidelines contained in medieval Arabic, Latin, and vernacular pregnancy-regimens are analyzed and their origins explored. In their emphasis on eating disorders such as morning-sickness and pica, the texts are shown to follow more closely Greek, Roman, and Byzantine sources than the conservative pregnancy-regimens of Hindu medicine, although medieval Arabic compilers were familiar with both the Eastern and Western tradition. A shift in audience from professional and male to lay and female is observed when the Latin pregnancy-regimens of school medicine are translated into the vernacular and later printed either separately or in conjunction with books on midwifery and gynecology.