The Discovery of the Clitoris (c. 1559)

[Guest]

Dear Cecil:
In a recent review of Thomas Laqueur's Making Sex I read that Renaldus Columbus discovered the clitoris in 1559. I can't make sense of this. Wasn't it right under his nose the whole time, so to speak? Who discovered the penis? And who was Renaldus Columbus, anyway? Any relation to Chris? --ML, Malden, Massachusetts

Cecil replies:
You haven't grasped the totality of this, Mark. Renaldus was born in 1516. Can you imagine a guy who proclaims to the world his discovery of the clitoris ... at age 43? Incidentally, he apparently died that same year. Too bad. They say his wife was about to broach the subject of foreplay.

But seriously. According to Thomas Laqueur, Columbus, AKA Matteo Realdo Colombo, was a lecturer in surgery at the University of Padua, Italy. (Whether he was related to Christopher Columbus I don't know.) In 1559 he published a book called De re anatomica in which he described the "seat of woman's delight." He concluded, "since no one has discerned these projections and their workings, if it is permissible to give names to things discovered by me, it should be called the love or sweetness of Venus."

Columbus's claim was disputed, but not because it was off the wall. On the contrary, Columbus's successor at Padua, Gabriel Fallopius (name ring any bells?), said he was the first to discover the clitoris. A semblance of sanity was restored when Kasper Bartholin, a 17th century Danish anatomist, dismissed both claims, saying the clitoris had been widely known since the second century. By this one assumes he means "known to male anatomists." It is safe to say women had discovered it a good while before that.

Lest you think such foolishness was confined to the 16th century, recall Freud's bizarre claim that women had two kinds of orgasms, clitoral and vaginal--an idea not fully put to rest until the work of Masters and Johnson. More recently there was the hubbub about the Grafenberg spot, which briefly threatened to replace the clitoris as the seat of female sexual excitement. In some ways we know more about what happened in the universe's first tenth of a second than we do about what goes on in the interval between "Your place or mine?" and deciding who sleeps on the wet spot.
--CECIL ADAMS

from The Straight Dope

 

[matriarch]

Perdy, what would we do without you ?

So much enlightenment and knowledge.

I'm speechless at some of the things you pass on to us.

Just don't stop.

Mat

 

[Lisa Denton]

I wouldn't think of disputing your facts, but I stand by my claim that I discovered mine. I even planted a flag, or was it a finger, to mark the area as my territory sort of. It may not go down in history as like the discovery of a new continent or something but at the time it was that important to me.
Just my opinion.

 

[cantdog]

The book, The Anatomist, is a fictional account of the last year of Columbus's life, and that of the nun and the famous whore involved with him and his discovery (as the book has it; the history is much more reticent, and we do not know which woman "aided" Columba to his discovery).

Anatomy was quite a new science in the Renaissance, and bodies, cadavers, were widely proscribed from being used to research it. Cadavers do not teach you about the function of the clitoris like they do about the circulation of the blood.

Bartholini's "second century" claim was made to one-up his predecessors, and discredit them to his own advantage. The Roman text which specifies the location and use of the organ hadn't come to light when Columba was working.

All this is in a cultural context, of course. Asian sources mention it earlier, and contemporary Muslims knew of it. The culture at large in Medieval Europe, if indeed people were generally aware of the clit, never mentions it anywhere.

Courtly literature doesn't do much with amor, only devotion, honor, and chivalry; and the church literature is concerned with caritas instead.

Faith, Hope and Love (Paul's letter to the Corinthian church) uses the word rendered in Latin by caritas, the kind of love which is non-sexual: esteem, altruism, and so on.

Off the top of my head, from a discussion in German lit. class. No research involved.

 

[Marsipanne]

I could probably count as one of most naive kids of all time. I didn't realise I had three holes until we got taught in school. I thought the bumpy bit at the top was where wee came out of. I can't remember when I discovered the clitoris. Hmm.. I think it was a gradual discovery actually.

 

[Guest]

Superb: Cantdog off the top of his head.

Perdita

 

[haldir]

Who cares which man claims to have "discovered" the clit?

Surely, in keeping with the comments of all the women in this thread, it is "discovered" anew for each woman? The fact that it took so long to "discover" tells you everything you need to know about the attitude of men through the ages,and even when they knew it was there, they thought it was a problem!

Personally, I love to help in the quest of discovery and satisfaction - giving pleasure is the best there is!

As for who discovered the penis, the first male hand!

 

[cantdog]

It is a fundamentally more benign culture when the knowledge of the clit is general and pervasive.

That knowledge is a weapon if you're the only guy that knows it for miles around. In the book, the anatomist receives the very expensive services of the famous whore for free for years, because he is the only one.

If all these women discovered it, as you say, and I doubt they all did in a repressed age, then why did they keep it to themselves? Because, if their husband knew it, he could be receiving a lot of free services! The dynamic set up by the release of the secret is the story of the book. It's by some Italian novelist I never can remember the name of.

 

[Guest]

It is a fundamentally more benign culture when the knowledge of the clit is general and pervasive.
...
If all these women discovered it, as you say, and I doubt they all did in a repressed age, then why did they keep it to themselves?

Like your first statement, Dawg.

It's not difficult to imagine every woman discovering her clit as a child, or even infant (I've observed a few baby girls of friends playing with their cooch as regularly as baby boys). Thing is, in millenia of cultures that taught women had no libido, or if they did they were unnatural/immoral, then one wouldn't expect a clitorite to advertise it, even to her husband.

Just off the top of my head (the one above my shoulders). P.

 

[mcfbridge]

I wouldn't think of disputing your facts, but I stand by my claim that I discovered mine. I even planted a flag, or was it a finger, to mark the area as my territory sort of. It may not go down in history as like the discovery of a new continent or something but at the time it was that important to me.
Just my opinion.

You know every great discovery must be confirmed before it can be truly documented. I would be happy to meet you there and make sure, (in the interests of history, of course).

 

[Lisa Denton]

You know every great discovery must be confirmed before it can be truly documented. I would be happy to meet you there and make sure, (in the interests of history, of course).

Ha, ha, haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, oooooh, in the interest of history, of course. I'm not sure I want it to be documented. What are we talkin about, like a film crew and Discovery Channel or somethin? You are funny!!!!!!!!

 

[cantdog]

Stalking the wild cltoris in its lair...

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

I'll have to check my book, but I'm pretty sure that Hippocrates mentioned the clit in his notes way back in Ancient Greece. However, unlike the men of the Age of Exploration and Pillaging and Shit, he wasn't compelled to paint a giant flag on it and claim it for his country. Frankly that age is always a good laugh, because most of the "discoveries" that allowed them to make "discoveries" came from reading the old Grecian texts that the Church had banned for awhile.

Also, I know for a fact that the clitoris was well known by the women of Ancient Greece, was mentioned by said women, though usually in flowery disguise. However they didn't stick a big flag into it, so it doesn't count.

Discoveries. Bleh.

"Actually it was known for ages by local natives, various hunters, fur trappers, and lost hikers, but they weren't explorers so they didn't count." -Terry Pratchett

 

[Guest]

Stalking the wild cltoris in its lair...

or: "Through the Dense, Tropical Minge Forest" with Dr. Tongueston,Ph.D., Bio-sexolgist extraordinaire

 

[Lisa Denton]

Stalking the wild cltoris in its lair...

EEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[cantdog]

The Greeks mention it, and the second century thing was Orphic rites. Check your Campbell.

But the Medieval period was another animal. Literacy itself was pretty low, to start with, and most people never left home to travel more than six miles to market.

There was a lot of country Paganism, still. We have the best records from the Scandinavian area, and Germany. Odin, Thorr, and all the boys. But the Mediterranean gods persisted, too. Pagan, the word, is the same word as "hick." Paisano, peasant, pagano, pagani, pagan. The cities were the seats of government and the places where conversion to the "White Christ" religion paid off the best. Country paganism persisted for many centuries, and their traditions may have included lore not current in the Medieval courts and in the literate Church.

The "secret" of the clit may have had a wide undeground vogue, especially given its usefulness.

I played with the heads of my "nephew" and "niece"-- actually my friend's children-- on a camping trip. We had come to Saponac Lake via the Upper Passadumkeag on canoes, last summer. The first twenty-four hours there were no loons (divers, to the Brits) to be heard, and being a Maine lake, we remarked on it.

The next morning, Ian and I claimed the Passadumkeag Loon, which we finally discovered, in the name of the King of Spain. Or I did. Then we had a pleasant morning discussion about Terra Nulliis, American Natives, colonialism, furriners, and related topics. The initial absurdity helped the kids think critically about the bizarre claims of people like Balboa and De Soto.

cantdog

 

[shereads]

Stalking the wild cltoris in its lair...

I suppose it took a man to discover the clitoris in the same sense that it took a European to discover America.

 

[The Mutt]

I suppose it took a man to discover the clitoris in the same sense that it took a European to discover America.

I discovered the clitoris, only to discover that some Vikings had discovered it years before.
Gonna get them Vikings.

 

[cantdog]

Mutt, have you submitted to the patent office? Many corporations have successfully patented sections of the human gene structure. It doesn't have to be yours in any way to be successfully patented, seemingly; and once it is, it is your "intellectual property."

Imagine the royalties you'd get every time someone used "your" knowledge of the clit!

 

[Svenskaflicka]

It makes me think of the American Indian who went to Italy in the 1990'ies, stuck a flag in the ground, and claimed that he had discovered Italy.
When asked by journalists about his sanity, he replied: "Hey, if it worked for Columbus, it should work for me as well..?"

 

[Couture]

You mean women were allowed to cum back then? I'm surprised King Henry didn't try to come up with an amendment to the magna carta prohibiting clitoral sex.

 

[Lisa Denton]

You mean women were allowed to cum back then? I'm surprised King Henry didn't try to come up with an amendment to the magna carta prohibiting clitoral sex.

I'm surprised too, but they probably figured prohibiting clitoral sex would almost be anal?

 

[Uther_Pendragon]

According to Moslem legal history, Mohammed met a party of women going out of the city with a crying girl. He asked why she was crying.
"We're going to perform a cliteredcectomy," to paraphrase the women's answer.
"Very well," Mohammed answered, "but perform the less radical variation."
Now, according to this guy Columbus, this entire discussion took place a millenium before the clitoris was discovered.
"We don't know what this thing could possibley be, but we're going to follow the custom of cutting it out."
Not the most plausible bet of dialogue I've ever written.

 

[shereads]

"Very well," Mohammed answered, "but perform the less radical variation."

Now, there's an inspiring story. I guess I was wrong about Mo's contempt for women.

 

[Couture]

According to Moslem legal history, Mohammed met a party of women going out of the city with a crying girl. He asked why she was crying.
"We're going to perform a cliteredcectomy," to paraphrase the women's answer.
"Very well," Mohammed answered, "but perform the less radical variation."

Kind of makes you wonder what God plans on doing with all those unused clits and foreskins?

"What do you look like God?"

"I look much like you Adam. I made you in my image after all. Well...except for that little bit of skin covering the head of your cock."