Autore
Urso, Carmelina

Titolo
"Vetustas", "anus" e "vetulae" nel Medioevo
Periodico
Studi storici
Anno: 2012 - Volume: 53 - Fascicolo: 4 - Pagina iniziale: 817 - Pagina finale: 854

In the Middle Ages, although women had a life expectancy of less than thirty-fiveor thirty-eight years, many reached and surpassed the age of sixty, seventy, or eveneighty years. The high female mortality rate was due to poor hygiene, a diet low iniron, the shortcomings of medical science and pharmacopoeia, as well as, for marriedwomen, the consequences of pregnancy and childbirth. The late Middle Ages saw aremarkable turnaround, and treatises spread practical advice and medical and dietarysuggestions. The longest-lived women, however, were the nuns and queens who livedin an environment that ensured greater protection from violence and a rich and balanceddiet. Old women now were either respected (mothers, grandmothers, nurses)for their wisdom and experience, or despised when they refused to accept the faultsof time and tried to hide them with baubles and rouge, or when they induced theyouth to adopt lascivious and unscrupulous attitudes (pandering and procuring), orengaged in magical practices (herbariae and strigae). Good or bad, wise or dissolute,the old women left their mark on society and on the mentality of the Middle Ages.



SICI: 0039-3037(2012)53:4<817:""E"NM>2.0.ZU;2-D
Testo completo: http://www.mulino.it/download/article/10.7375/73254
Testo completo alternativo: http://www.mulino.it/doi/10.7375/73254

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