Virility Examined: Andrology between Gynaecology and Sexual Hygiene in a Physician of the XVI Century

Abstract

The paper examines ideas, representations and descriptions of male physiology and pathology in a text written by the physician Giovanni Marinello and published in Venice in 1536. Marinello's successful work, written in Italian and entirely devoted to gynaecological problems, is a short guide for women interested in their own health and in the sexual hygiene of their marriages. Tracing a short history of female diseases, the book offers also interesting issues of andrological interest.