84 Ulysses Aldrovandi

To ensure the composite parts of the uterus are better understood, we shall discuss them here with a bit more precision. These parts are four in number. The first is entirely external and consists of several distinct structures; for this reason, it is given a plural name and is called the female *pudenda*.

Properly speaking, however, this external part is called the *vulva*, as if the word came from *vallis* (a valley) or *valva* (a folding door). Even so, the entire uterus, including its four divisions, is sometimes called the vulva because it is split into two halves—the right and left—by a very wide fissure, which open and close as easily as the folding doors of a house. In many places, Galen called this part the *cunnus*, perhaps from *cuneus* (a wedge) or the fissure that this part represents.

The second part is called the *sinus pudoris* [the vaginal canal], the third is the true neck of the womb [the cervix], and the fourth is the body of the uterus. Some of these parts are so external that they are visible to all, while others are so internal that they are revealed only through dissection. Furthermore, many of these parts are common to both virgins and women who have had intercourse, while a few are unique to one or the other.

Therefore, we will first deal with the parts common to both types of women, starting with those that are most obvious: the pubes, the two *labia pudendi* (lips of the pudenda), the cleft located between them, and within it, the extension of the *nymphae*. The pubes is that exterior region which is covered with hair in due time. The labia are like two soft little mounds composed of a substance that is cutaneous, fleshy, glandular, spongy, and fatty, situated at the sides of the great cleft.

From these labia hang two outgrowths, partly fleshy and partly membranous, which physicians everywhere call the *nymphae*; the Greeks, however, call them *pterygia*, or "little wings." Why these parts are called *nymphae* is not entirely certain, unless we wish to say that the Greeks call brides *nymphae*; since these parts are the first to receive the groom during intercourse, they seem to have been named nymphae for that reason. Or perhaps they are called nymphae as if from *lymphae* (waters), because just as nymphs preside over waters and springs, these caruncles stand by the urinary passage and the *sinus pudoris*, from which various fluids flow like springs. To this we might add that just as nymphs are sometimes called the guardians of mountains, so these caruncles are lodged, as it were, between hills.

Now let us approach the great cleft, in which five things worthy of observation are found. The first is its transition into a *fossa* (a trench or cavity); the second is the clitoris, located at the front and upper end of the cleft; the third is the urinary duct, at the end of which is the very short opening of the neck of the bladder, with a certain fleshy prominence surrounding and covering the orifice; the fourth is the orifice of the *sinus pudoris* located in the middle of the fossa, which appears quite differently structured in virgins than in other women; and the fifth is the hollow and wide fossa situated before the *sinus pudoris*, which takes the shape of a little boat (*navicula*).

The more difficult parts shall be explained first. The clitoris, or *κλειτορὶς*, as if closing the cleft, does not seem to differ from the male penis except in length, the urinary passage, the emission of seed, and a lack of muscles; however, it is preeminent in its sensitivity to titillation. Because of this, recent anatomists such as Colombo have designated this part the "gadfly of Venus" (*oestrum veneris*) and the "sweetness of love." This is the part that women of abandoned and wicked lust misuse against one another in mutual rubbing; consequently, they are called *tribades* by the Greeks—that is, "rubbers."

Finally, those caruncles along the urinary duct were placed there by nature to serve as a barrier against the air, lest it enter the capacity of the bladder after the passing of urine. Let these remarks suffice for the parts common to both virgins and women who have been known by men.

If we now hurry to the other parts, we come upon the orifice of the *sinus pudoris*, which has its seat in the fossa. In virgins, this is as nature first formed it, but in other women, it is seen as it remains after compression, without any hope of recovering its former integrity. This structure, or fold, enjoys many names: it is called the "flower of virgins," the *hymen* (as if a *limen* or threshold), the "bud of the flower," the "column," and the "virginal enclosure."

This part is composed of four caruncles resembling myrtle berries, which are located at the four corners of the said sinus; they are then connected by four fleshy membranes situated in the spaces between each caruncle, with which they extend almost equally. Consequently, this structure, built from four caruncles and as many membranes, tapers into a truncated cone. Thus, it is beautifully likened to an *alabastrum*—that is, a half-expanded rosebud—and is called by Galen a membrane similar to the prepuce. It is an outgrowth perforated at the end like the prepuce, but a little more fleshy, and more soft-