Back
Aura-1-2025-Cauzzi-Sermini
Journal article

Storia di un “dono” : la medicina delle nostre donne (1892) di Zeno Zanetti e gli immaginari della cura

  • Cauzzi, Chiara ORCID Istituto di studi italiani (ISI), Facoltà di comunicazione, cultura e società, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera - Biblioteca universitaria Lugano, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera
  • Sermini, Sara ORCID Istituto di studi italiani (ISI), Facoltà di comunicazione, cultura e società, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera
  • 2025
Published in:
  • Aura. - 2025, no. 1, p. 57-76
Collezioni speciali
Fondo Celio
Medicina delle nostre donne
English This article offers a critical reinterpretation of "La medicina delle nostre donne. Studio folk-lorico" (1892) by the Italian physician Zeno Zanetti, based on a rare copy preserved at the University Library Lugano. Donated by an Italian lawyer to a Ticinese doctor, the volume serves as a starting point for exploring not only the circulation of knowledge between Italy and Switzerland but also the cultural imaginaries surrounding healing and, in particular, the role attributed to women. Through a comparison with Jeremias Gotthelf’s two-volume novel "Wie Anne Bäbi Jowäger haushaltet und wie es ihm mit dem Doktern geht" (1843–44), the article analyzes the ambivalent representations of women’s knowledge. In both texts, healing is presented as a feminine “gift,” a “natural” vocation – a practical, everyday knowledge transmitted orally, often valued yet just as often ridiculed or marginalized. The concept of the “gift” thus becomes a key interpretive tool to highlight the tension between recognition and exclusion, between power and subordination. The article proposes a genealogical reading of these imaginaries, showing how they persist, in various forms, to this day.
Collections
Language
  • Italian
Classification
Arts, Human and Social Science
License
CC BY-NC-SA
Open access status
gold
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://n2t.net/ark:/12658/srd1333921
Statistics
Document views: 3 File downloads:
  • Aura-1-2025-Cauzzi-Sermini: 1