The Terrifying Ways Renaissance Women Faked Virginity

  / juliamartins  

In Renaissance Europe, a woman’s future could hinge on bleeding during her wedding night. No blood? No dowry, no honour—and sometimes, no safety. In this video, I explore the strange and often disturbing world of virginity restoration recipes from Giambattista Della Porta’s bestselling 16th-century book Magia Naturalis (Natural Magick).

Join me, Dr Julia Martins, as I investigate the painful, poisonous, and often absurd methods women were told could “make them virgins again.” From arsenic pills to leech-induced scabs, dried pigeon’s blood, and even lead-based vaginal paint, these so-called remedies weren’t hidden in secret manuscripts—they were published, translated, and sold across Europe.

But this story isn’t just about Renaissance medicine or bizarre historical cures. It’s about patriarchy, purity myths, and how the demand for proof of virginity shaped not only women’s bodies but the publishing industry itself. I examine how different European translations of Magia Naturalis censored—or sensationalised—the infamous recipes, and why Della Porta’s book was eventually banned by the Spanish Inquisition.

If you’re curious about the origins of hymen myths, the history of sexual coercion, and how early modern society tried to control female sexuality with books, blood, and blistering pills, you’re in the right place.

For more on the history of medicine, gender, and the uncomfortable intersections of science and shame, don’t forget to subscribe—and if you’d like to support this work, consider joining my Patreon.

Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
02:31 - Chapter 1 - Virginity: Proof, Property, Problem
05:28 - Chapter 2 - The Recipe: Four Ways to Fake It
09:49 - Chapter 3 - Translating (and Taming) Magia Naturalis
14:57 - Conclusion

References:
Laura Balbiani, La Magia Naturalis di G. B. Della Porta (1999).
Nicholas Culpeper, A Directory for Midwives (1662).
Giambattista Della Porta, Magiae naturalis, sive de miraculis rerum naturalium (1558).
_________, De i miracoli et maravigliosi effetti da la natura prodotti (1560).
_________, Magiae naturalis, sive de miraculis rerum naturalium (1589).
_________, Natural Magick (1658).
_________, Magie Naturelle (1581).
_________, Des vortrefflichen Herrn Johann Baptista Portae von Neapolis Magia Naturalis, Oder: Hauß-, Kunst- und Wunder-Buch (1680).
_________, De i miracoli et maravigliosi effetti da la natura prodotti (1677).
William Eamon, Science and the Secrets of Nature (1994).
_________, Natural Magic and Utopia in the Cinquecento: Campanella, the Della Porta circle, and the Revolt of Calabria, Memorie Dominicane (26), 1995.
The Trotula: A Medieval Compendium of Women's Medicine, (trans. and ed. by Monica Green) (2001).
Rudolf Hirsch, The Printed Word: Its Impact and Diffusion (1978).
Helen King, Immaculate Forms: Uncovering the History of Women's Bodies (2025).
Daniel Sennertus, Nicholas Culpeper, and Abdiah Cole, Practical Physick: The Fourth Book in Three Parts (1664).
Sophia Smith Galer, The sex myth that's centuries old, BBC Future (April 2022).
Maurizio Torrini (ed.), Giovan Battista Della Porta nell'Europa del suo tempo (1990).

Intro Music:
Folk Round by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-...

Artist: http://incompetech.com/