The Life and Legend of Catterina Vizzani. Sexual identity, science and sensationalism in Eighteenth-Century Italy and England

In 1744 the doctor Giovanni Bianchi published the Brief History of the Life of Catterina Vizzani, who Wore a Man's Clothes for Eight Years. Despite having the appearance of a novel, the text recounted the autopsy performed on a corpse that was rather controversial. On an anatomical level, it appeared female, but the person to whom it belonged had assumed a male identity. Clorinda Donato's volume traces this case, investigating both its scientific and media-cultural implications. The Brief History aroused lukewarm reactions among intellectuals of the time but had considerable success on the European publishing market and became the subject of various translations and distortions.