Meet Realdo Colombo. In 1559, this Italian anatomist claimed to have discovered the clitoris, then promptly died (for unrelated reasons) 
We'll start by saying that obviously, Colombo didn't discover the clitoris. Anyone with one probably noticed it was there, since it's RIGHT THERE.
It also wasn't like Colombo was the first anatomist to point out the clitoris - it was known since antiquity among Greek, Persian and Arabic anatomists, on account of it being RIGHT THERE.
Colombo wasn't even the first 16th century anatomist to publish work about the clitoris; that honour goes to Charles Estienne, who published a description of the organ in 1545. Estienne concluded it probably had something to do with peeing.
However, Realdo Colombo does get some credit from us: his description of the clitoris acknowledged its role in sexual pleasure. Very floridly. Here's what he said...
" [a] certain small part, which is elevated on the apex vaginae above the foramen from which urine exits. And this dearest reader is that, it is the principal seat of women’s enjoyment in intercourse...
"...so that if you not only rub it with your penis, but even touch it with your little finger, the pleasure causes their seed to flow forth in all directions, swifter than the wind, even if they don’t want it to..."
"...‘‘Since no one else has discerned these processes and their working; if it is permissible to give a name to things discovered by me, it should be called the love or sweetness of Venus."
" It cannot be said how much I am astonished by so many remarkable anatomists, that they not even have detected [it] on account of so great advantage this so beautiful thing formed by so great art.’’
Reading between the lines, we can deduce that as far as long-dead Italian doctors go, Realdo Colombo probably wasn't a bad shag.
He dropped dead shortly after publishing his study of anatomy, which included his description of the clitoris, De Rea Anatomica. But that didn't mean his work wasn't without controversy.
Vesalius, another very famous anatomist, with whom Colombo had beef anyway, reacted badly to the description, denying the existence of a "new and useless part" of the anatomy, and claiming the clitoris was a pathological structure only found in "hermaphrodites".
Meanwhile Gabriele Falloppio (the tubes guy) (actually, technically, the TUBAS guy) claimed that actually he'd discovered the clitoris and just hadn't published it, but he knew all about it, definitely.
https://twitter.com/vagina_museum/status/1348652248419737600
The claim from Falloppio was so strong that one of Falloppio's students took legal action and charged Colombo with plagiarism.
This lawsuit didn't go anywhere because by this time, Colombo had been dead for 13 years.
This lawsuit didn't go anywhere because by this time, Colombo had been dead for 13 years.
It was not until 1998 - that's not a typo - that a full, detailed anatomical study was conducted on the internal clitoris was conducted, by Helen O'Connell.
Discover the clitoris at a virtual tour of our #MuffBusters exhibition, focusing on sex, pregnancy and clitoris myths vaginamuseum.co.uk/events/eventsc…
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