The Womb as Prison:

Saving the Soul of the Unborn in the Catholic Enlightenment

PROGRAMME FOR THE EVENT

ELBOW research project organises its second workshop in May 2025. As part of the private workshop, we also organise a public lecture in collaboration with History of Philosophy Research Seminar (University of Helsinki).

The public lecture is held by Professor Paola Bertucci (University of Yale). The title of the public lecture is The Womb as Prison: Saving Soul of the Unborn in the Catholic Enlightenment.

WHEN & WHERE?

9 May 2025, 16:00–17:30, University of Helsinki

University of Helsinki main building, Fabianinkatu 33

4th floor, faculty hall (F4038)

ABSTRACT

In 1745 Francesco Cangiamila, a Sicilian priest, published Sacred Embryology, a text at the intersection of medicine, theology, and law, which was widely translated and used across the Catholic world. The work urged for cesarian incisions to be practiced in cases of difficult pregnancies, even on living mothers, to save the soul of the unborn through baptism. The practice typically led to the death of the mother, yet it received the blessings of the enlightened pope, Benedict XIV, who praised its grounding on the most recent scientific findings on human generation. I analyze the metaphor of the womb as prison for the unborn that Sacred Embryology employed, highlighting the theological tradition on which it rested. I argue that this metaphor presented the womb not so much as somebody’s body part but as public space to be surveilled and legislated upon by spiritual and civic authorities.