Book Illustrations: Jane Sharp’s The Midwives Book

Taking Jane Sharp’s The Midwives Book as a case study, this chapter demonstrates how images can be used as sources for the history of medicine. Looking at the ways that book illustrations were produced, how they interacted with texts, the kinds of knowledge they could express, and the different ways in which they might be interpreted and used, this chapter aims to show how rich a source images can be. Looking at anatomical, medical, social, and cultural aspects of midwifery in early modern England, this chapter goes beyond treating images as simple reflections of culture, instead identifying them as complex agents in the creation of that culture.