Book Description: Small quarto (20 x 16 cm): title page, 68 leaves, [4]. Bound in recycled manuscript vellum. The title page, with contemporary hand-colouring depicts Adam and Eve around a skeleton. There are 72 woodcuts by Jost Amman showing birthing scenes, a birthing chair, different stages of the foetus, and various plants and animals, as well as the points of the body recommended for blood-letting. This is the very first fully illustrated edition of Albertus Magnus' book. The Augsburg 1494 printing contains only a single woodcut; the contemporary Paris edition has none, though it does feature an attractive title page. Decoratively speaking, this listed copy, exceedingly scarce, sets the 'pictorial' standard. The book is divided into sections, with the main one devoted to gynaecology, obstetrics and midwifery. There are then sections and passages on "De virtitus herbarum", "De animalibus", "De mineralibus" and texts on aqua vitae, preventing the plague, phlebotomy, the plants. Condition: there are old restorations in the margins of the first 6 leaves and of leaf 39. Text and woodcuts are unaffected. I have seen two copies online and each one has pieces missing from margins and/or corners. The copy in the Munich state library is badly affected, and I wonder whether the rather thin paper has made the book vulnerable to tearing and to loss. There are some traces of damp stains, rare wormholes and on one larger wormhole (2 cm) between leaves 13 (the last page of obstetrics and midwifery) to 32 affecting the text. The binding is worn. But for a book of its age, it is a very presentable item. The 1581 Frankfurt edition of Daraus man alle Heimligkeit deß Weiblichen geschlechts erkennen kann—issued by the prolific printer-publisher Sigmund Feyerabend and attributed to the venerable scholastic philosopher Albertus Magnus—stands as a compelling relic at the crossroads of medieval natural philosophy and early modern vernacular medical culture. Although the text draws on medieval sources and the tradition of the secreta mulierum literature, this particular printing reflects a sixteenth-century sensibility: one increasingly concerned with empirical observation, artisanal knowledge, and practical utility for midwives and household healers. The title itself promises much—“from which one may learn all the secrets of the female sex,” together with instruction on birth, herbal medicines, the virtues of noble stones and animals, and a “proven regimen for evil things.” These elements situate the work within a flourishing genre that combined learned natural philosophy, pre-scientific gynecology, devotional notions of purity and danger, and practical obstetrical instruction. The 1581 edition is significant not only as a representative of this genre but also as a Feyerabend imprint, adorned with the type of engaging woodcuts for which his workshop was known. The result is a richly textured text that blends scholastic authority, early scientific curiosity, and visual pedagogy—qualities that today render it both academically fascinating and highly collectible. A. Structure and Contents of the Book While editions of this text vary in organization, the 1581 printing may be broadly divided into three thematic sections: 1. The Secrets of Women and Female Physiology This opening portion draws on Aristotelian and Galenic models of physiology to explain the nature of women’s bodies, reproductive anatomy, menstrual cycles, and humoral dispositions. In doing so, the text follows the medieval tradition of the De secretis mulierum, long (though spuriously) attributed to Albertus Magnus, but widely copied, translated, and recopied as a cornerstone of scholastic natural philosophy on women. Unlike strictly theoretical treatises, however, this edition adds observations and advice clearly intended for a lay audience involved in reproductive care, bridging learned medicine and folk practice. 2. Obstetrical and Midwifery Instruction Practical guidance emerges most explicitly in the obstetrical section, which treats conception, pregnancy, fetal growth, parturition, and postnatal recovery. Discussion ranges from signs of virility and fertility to methods for inducing labor or easing difficult births. The text offers remedies derived from herbs, minerals, and animal substances—fitting within early modern pharmacology. This portion would have served literate midwives, apothecaries, and household caretakers seeking dependable guidance in an era when formally trained physicians were rarely present at births and female reproductive care remained largely the domain of women. 3. Materia Medica and Natural Virtues The final section treats the healing virtues of plants, precious stones, and animals, reflecting the medieval encyclopedic impulse to classify nature according to its occult properties and medicinal affinities. While modern readers may view such material through a scientific lens, it is essential to recognize the intellectual seriousness with which early modern readers approached these correspondences. Stones were believed to influence humoral balance; animal parts had symbolic and therapeutic value; and herbs were the foundation of most practical medicine. ________________________________________ B. Obstetrics, Woodcuts, and Practical Knowledge The obstetrical portion of this work constitutes its most historically significant contribution. Unlike university medical texts—written in Latin and aimed at male physicians—this German vernacular manual catered to the lived realities of midwives and lay practitioners navigating childbirth without institutional support. Central to this section are the woodcut illustrations typical of Feyerabend’s press. These images—depicting fetal positions, the apparatus of birth, and occasionally the anatomy of the womb—served far more than a decorative function. In a period before standardized anatomical plates were widely available, vernacular woodcuts shaped ordinary readers’ understanding of bodily processes. The stylized nature of these images must be read not as scientific limitation but as a visual language calibrated to the needs of artisans and midwives: clear, mnemonic, and focused on practical orientation rather than exact anatomical fidelity. Note the scene with midwives, assistants and a wise male astrologer all doing their work. Such woodcuts occupy a significant place in the history of obstetrical illustration, preceding more refined copperplate engravings in later treatises by Jacob Rueff (1554, 1580) or Eucharius Rösslin (whose Rosengarten exemplifies the transition to specifically midwifery manuals). In the Albertine tradition, figures often illustrate fetal presentation and the stages of parturition, guiding attendants in recognizing normal and dangerous births. Their continued reproduction across editions suggests their perceived utility. Before formal midwifery regulation, women learned their craft through apprenticeship and oral transmission. Printed manuals, however, increasingly supplemented this knowledge, enabling literate midwives—and literate women assisting in domestic childbirth—to expand their repertoire of techniques. The book thus bridges two epistemic worlds: medieval secrecy and early modern dissemination, oral skill and print culture, folk practice and proto-scientific inquiry. The emphasis on “proven” remedies and ritual regimens also reveals the porous boundaries between practical medicine and spiritual or magical safeguards. The early modern delivery room was a site of competing authorities—religious invocations, herbal poultices, and humoral adjustments could coexist without contradiction. To own and consult a work such as this signaled not only literacy but participation in a knowledge economy increasingly accessible beyond universities and monasteries. ________________________________________ C. Rarity, Illustrative Appeal, and Collecting Significance From a bibliographic perspective, this edition possesses multiple layers of desirability: • Early Printing of Women’s Medical Knowledge: As a sixteenth-century vernacular manual centered on female physiology and childbirth, the book marks a transitional phase in medical publishing when women’s health began receiving systematic printed attention. The very striking woodcut depicts a stylized female figure with her abdomen opened to reveal a schematic uterus and fetus, reflecting Renaissance medical theory rather than anatomical realism. The caption in Albertus Magnus’ book is “Wie ein Kind in Mutterleib ernehret würde” (“How a child is nourished in the womb”), and it introduces a section on pregnancy and fetal development. The figure sits in an ornate, allegorical posture blending symbolism, classical aesthetics, and rudimentary anatomy to instruct women, midwives and physicians who had limited access to human dissection. The organs are simplified and idealized, emphasizing the womb and fetal nourishment rather than detailed internal structures. The woodcut is part of the tradition of pseudo-Albertine medical literature and appeared in print culture across multiple works. It is rooted in iconography first popularized in early obstetrical treatises such as Jakob Rueff’s De Conceptu et Generatione Hominis (1580) and was then reused in the Frankfurt edition of Magnus listed here. Today, such works appeal not only to traditional collectors of incunabula and early medical texts but also to institutions and scholars researching gender, embodiment, vernacular science, book history, and the circulation of practical knowledge in early modern Europe. In this respect, the 1581 edition’s blend of textual authority, illustrative richness, and material rarity makes it a compelling acquisition. ________________________________________ Conclusion This 1581 Frankfurt printing of a treatise attributed to Albertus Magnus exemplifies the moment when medieval scholasticism encountered the democratizing forces of print, vernacular transmission, and domestic medical practice. Its pages reveal early modern Europe negotiating knowledge—about women, birth, and nature—through scholastic inheritance, artisanal pedagogy, and the authority of observable experience. The obstetrical content, supported by striking and pedagogically oriented woodcuts, positions the volume as a vital artifact in the development of midwifery literature. For the collector, it offers not only rarity and historical resonance but also a vivid testament to the period’s fascination with—and reliance on—the embodied knowledge of women. ________________________________________ Select Bibliography • Bosselmann-Cyran, Kristian: Secreta mulierum‹ mit Glosse in der deutschen Bearbeitung von Johann Hartlieb. Text und Untersuchungen. 1985 (Würzburger medizinhistorische Forschungen 36). • Broomhall, Susan. Women’s Medical Work in Early Modern France. Manchester University Press, 2004. • Cadden, Joan. Meanings of Sex Difference in the Middle Ages: Medicine, Science, and Culture. Cambridge University Press, 1993. • Green, Monica H. The Trotula: An English Translation of the Medieval Compendium of Women's Medicine. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001. • King, Helen. Midwifery, Obstetrics, and the Rise of Gynaecology: The Uses of a Sixteenth-Century Compendium. Ashgate, 2007. • Kruse, Britta-Juliane: „Die Arznei ist Goldes wert“. Mittelalterliche Frauenrezepte. Berlin/New York 1999. • Lemay, Helen: Women’s Secrets. A Translation of Pseudo-Albertus Magnus’s De Secretis Mulierum with Commentaries. New York 1992. • Oren-Margolis, Yael. “Secrets of Women.” In The Encyclopaedia of Medieval Literature in Britain, edited by S. Echard and R. Rouse. Wiley, 2017. • Røsand, Elisabeth. “Visualizing Obstetrics in Early Modern Europe.” Medical History 62, no. 3 (2018): 321–343. • Schleissner, Margaret Rose: Pseudo-Albertus Magnus: Secreta mulierum cum commento, Deutsch: Critical text and commentary. PhD Dissertation. Princeton University 1987. • Siraisi, Nancy G. Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine. University of Chicago Press, 1990. • Wilson, Adrian. The Making of Man-Midwifery: Childbirth in England, 1660–1770. Harvard University Press, 1995. • Sherwood-Smith, Maria C., “Forschung oder Vorurteil, Kultur oder Naturkunde? Zur Frage der Frauenfeindlichkeit in den deutschen und niederländischen Bearbeitungen der ‘Secreta mulierum’ von Pseudo-Albertus Magnu”, in Robertshaw and Gerhard Wolf (eds), Natur und Kultur in der deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters: Colloquium Exeter 1997. Tübingen 1999: 163–174. ________________________________________