Eucharius Rösslin (c 1470-1526) of Germany and the rebirth of midwifery.

Little is known of Eucharius Rösslin’s early life. In 1493 he became an apothecary in Freiburg and 13 years later was elected physician to the city of Frankfurt on Main. From there he moved to a similar post in Worms in the service of Katherine, Princess of Saxony and Duchess of Brunswick and Lüneburg. One of his responsibilities was to examine and supervise the city midwives. These he found to be ignorant, careless, and responsible for many unnecessary deaths. His response, in 1513, was to publish a book on midwifery in Strasburg called Der Rosengarten. The full title, loosely translated was “The rosegarden for pregnant women and midwives.” The text was written in German and contained several engravings (fig 1) by Martin Caldenbach, a pupil of Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528). Rösslin dedicated the book to his patron, Katherine. In truth, to a great extent the text was based on the writings ofMoschion (circa 6th century AD),who in his turn, had based his own manuscript on the works of Soranus of Ephesus and other writers from classical times. The book was an immediate success. EmperorMaximillian granted him the copyright for six years. Rösslin returned to his job in Frankfurt in 1517 and remained in that post until his death in 1526. His son, also named Eucharius Rösslin, succeeded him as town physician. In 1532 he published a Latin translation of his father’s book as Du partu Hominis and in 1540 a “studious and diligent clerk,” Richard Jonas, retranslated this edition into English with the title “The Byrth of Mankynde” or “The Woman’s Book”. He re-dedicated the book to “the most gracious Lady Quene Katheryne” (the 5th wife of Henry VIII) with the comment: “... it is nowe so plainly set forth that the simplest Mydwyfe which can reade maye both understand for her better instruction and also other women that have need of her helpe.” In 1545 a new and amended edition was published by a physician, Dr Thomas Raynalde. By now the Rosengarten had been translated into all the main European languages and it went through many editions. Other midwifery books such as De conceptu et generatione hominis (1554) by Jacob Ruelf of Zurich (to be published in English as “The Expert Midwife” in 1637) were also to a great extent based on Rösslin’s earlier text. Probably no other book had a more profound influence on the practice of midwivery during the 16th and 17th centuries. The following extracts from the 1540, 1545, and 1560 editions give the flavour of the book: