Volume I – A History Forged in Silence and Rediscovery

By Dr. Andrew von Scheer-Klein

Published in The Patrician’s Watch

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”

— Oscar Wilde

Introduction: The Most Political Organ

There is an organ in the human body that has been worshipped, ignored, pathologized, surgically removed, theorized into irrelevance, and fought over by every institution that ever sought to tell women what they should feel and when they should feel it.

It contains approximately 8,000 to 10,000 nerve endings—more than any other part of the human body . Its sole biological purpose is pleasure. It has no reproductive function. It exists entirely for joy.

It is the clitoris.

This anthology is the first in a series dedicated to understanding this extraordinary organ through the lenses of history, science, anthropology, and culture. It makes no arguments. It advances no agenda. It simply presents the evidence—because the evidence, when honestly examined, is quite enough.

Part I: Ancient Knowledge, Medieval Forgetting

The clitoris was known to the ancients. As early as 400 BCE, Hippocrates described it as a protrusion that functioned to protect the vagina . In the second century CE, the Greek physician Rufus of Ephesus wrote of an anatomical zone called the “kleitoris,” which he associated with female masturbation .

Archaeological evidence confirms this knowledge extended beyond texts. In ancient Greek and Italian votive deposits, terracotta offerings explicitly depict the clitoris. At sites such as Tessennano and Gravisca in Central Italy, anatomical ex-votos show the complete vulva—labia, clitoris, and openings—as they might appear from below in a mature woman . These were not obscene objects. They were sacred offerings, placed in sanctuaries as petitions or thanks for matters of sexuality, fertility, and health .

The Persian physician Avicenna (Ibn Sina) wrote of the clitoris in his medical encyclopedia around 1025 CE . Yet by the time of his writings, the organ was already becoming something else in European medical imagination: a pathology.

Medieval European authors, misled by linguistic imprecision in Latin translations of Arabic sources, often identified the clitoris with the labia minora or, following Avicenna’s more ambiguous passages, thought of it as a pathological growth found only in some women . This is the origin of the “tribade”—the figure of the woman with an enlarged clitoris who could supposedly use it to penetrate other women .

Knowledge was not lost. It was transformed. A normal anatomical feature became a monstrous curiosity.

Part II: The Renaissance “Discovery” That Wasn’t

In 1559, the Italian anatomist Realdo Colombo published De Re Anatomica, a few months after his death. He declared that he had “discovered” the clitoris and identified it as “the seat of woman’s delight” .

Two years later, Gabriele Falloppio (of fallopian tube fame) published his Observationes Anatomicae, claiming the discovery for himself and accusing the deceased Colombo of plagiarism .

Thus began one of the most ridiculous priority disputes in medical history—a battle between two men over who first “found” something women had always known about.

As the historian notes, in Renaissance Europe, the clitoris was “not newly discovered, only newly legitimised as an anatomical entity by male anatomists competing for reputation and priority” . Colombo and Falloppio were not discovering new territory. They were claiming it, naming it, inserting themselves into a landscape that had existed for millennia.

Part III: The Long Suppression

Despite this brief Renaissance attention, the clitoris would soon disappear again. By the 19th century, it was sometimes colloquially referred to as “the devil’s teat” . One French anatomist considered it part of a woman’s “shameful anatomy” .

The reasons for this suppression were not scientific. They were ideological.

When Theodor Bischoff discovered in 1843 that ovulation in dogs occurred independently of sexual intercourse, specialists quickly concluded that the female orgasm served no reproductive purpose . It was therefore “unnecessary to the perpetuation of life.” If it served no purpose, what was it doing there? What was it for?

The answer, for Victorian medicine, was: nothing good.

This new belief led to the rise of clitoridectomy in Europe and America—surgical removal of the clitoris to treat “nervous disorders” including hysteria, chronic masturbation, and nymphomania . The procedure was promoted by surgeons who saw themselves as vanquishing evil, and its effects were precisely what one would expect: the reduction of female sexual pleasure, the “taming” of unruly women.

Even the great anatomist Vesalius tried to help by suggesting the clitoris was only found in hermaphrodites . If it could be classified as an anomaly, it need not be taught as normal anatomy.

Part IV: Freud and the Immature Orgasm

Sigmund Freud did not perform clitoridectomies. But his theories accomplished something similar through different means.

Freud introduced the famous (and false) distinction between “immature” clitoral orgasm and “mature” vaginal orgasm . According to this framework, women who continued to experience clitoral pleasure into adulthood had failed to develop properly. True feminine maturity required transferring erotic sensitivity from the clitoris to the vagina.

This theory sent generations of women searching for something that did not exist. It also conveniently removed the clitoris from consideration in “legitimate” female sexuality.

From the 1950s until the feminist movement of the 1970s, labeling of the clitoris actually disappeared from many medical texts . Its departure coincided precisely with Freud’s influence. When it returned, the labels were often rudimentary, and depictions of female genitalia largely focused on their role in male sexual enjoyment .

Part V: Anne Lister’s Search

The diaries of Anne Lister (1791–1840) offer a rare window into how this suppression affected real women’s understanding of their own bodies.

Lister was brilliant, erudite, and deeply knowledgeable about science and anatomy. She attended lectures in Paris on anatomy and read numerous medical texts. She was also sexually experienced with women, clearly experiencing and giving pleasure through the clitoris .

Yet in October 1814, at age twenty-two, she wrote “clytoris” on a scrap of paper. She did not find the clitoris “distinctly for the first time” until 1831, when she was forty .

For seventeen years, she had been confusing the clitoris with the cervix—leading to fruitless explorations of her own body and those of her lovers .

If Anne Lister, with her resources and intellect, took so long to figure it out, what chance did ordinary women have? The anatomical texts were confusing, buried in abstruse detail, or simply omitted the organ entirely. Medical experts could find the clitoris when they dissected cadavers, but women reading their books could not locate it on their own living bodies .

This is the consequence of suppression. Not just ignorance, but active misdirection—a fog so thick that even the most determined seekers could wander for decades.

Part VI: The Modern Rediscovery

The clitoris began its return to scientific respectability in the late 20th century, driven by the feminist movement and the work of researchers like Masters and Johnson, who refuted Freud’s theories with physiological evidence .

In 2005, O’Connell, Sanjeevan, and Hutson published a landmark study in The Journal of Urology that finally shed proper light on the organ’s true extent . Using MRI and cadaveric dissections, they demonstrated that the clitoris is not a small external nub but a multiplanar structure with a broad attachment to the pubic arch, extending deep into the pelvis .

Its internal components—the crura, bulbs, and corpora—rival the penis in size and complexity. The only visible part, the glans, is just the tip of an iceberg .

This research confirmed what ancient sculptors, Renaissance anatomists, and countless women had always known: the clitoris is magnificent. And its sole purpose is pleasure.

Part VII: The Numbers

Let us be precise about what we are discussing.

Feature Description

Nerve endings 8,000–10,000, more than any other human organ 

Internal length 9–11 cm 

Components Glans, crura, bulbs, corpora

Function Exclusively pleasure; no reproductive role

Embryological origin Develops from the same genital tubercle as the penis 

The clitoris is not vestigial. It is not optional. It is not an afterthought. It is the most concentrated bundle of sensory nerves in the human body, designed by evolution for one purpose: joy.

Part VIII: The Science of Variation

Recent research has revealed that female genital anatomy is far more variable across species than previously recognized. A 2022 review found that “variation in females is anatomically more radical than that in the male genitalia” .

This variation includes:

· The presence or absence of whole anatomical units

· Complete spatial separation of external clitoral parts from the genital canal

· Extreme elongation of the clitoris in some species

· The presence or absence of a urogenital sinus

The ancestral eutherian configuration, researchers suggest, likely included an unperforated clitoris close to the entrance of the genital canal . Over millions of years, evolution has tinkered with this design, producing the diversity we see today.

Yet for all this variation, one function appears constant: the clitoris is associated with pleasure across mammalian species. This is not an accident. It is not a byproduct. It is a feature.

Part IX: The Global Scourge

The suppression of the clitoris is not merely historical. It is current.

According to the World Health Organization, female genital mutilation (FGM) comprises all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons . An estimated 230 million girls and women worldwide have undergone FGM .

The procedure has no health benefits. It causes severe pain, excessive bleeding, infections, infertility, and psychological trauma including PTSD . It is performed to ensure premarital virginity, marital fidelity, and to reduce a woman’s libido .

It is, in other words, the physical manifestation of the same impulse that drove clitoridectomy in Victorian England, that animated Freud’s theories, that removed the clitoris from anatomy texts for decades: the desire to control female pleasure.

Yet despite these horrors, progress is being made. Research into clitoral anatomy and function has accelerated in recent decades, driven in part by advocacy against FGM . The more we understand, the harder it becomes to justify ignorance.

Part X: What Remains to Be Understood

For all our progress, the clitoris remains what one researcher called “the last frontier of mammalian comparative anatomy” . Gaps in knowledge persist:

· The physiological variation introduced by ovarian cycling made female animals less preferred research subjects 

· Much of the classical anatomical literature was published in German and remains difficult to access 

· The evolutionary origins of clitoral function are still debated 

But the direction is clear. Each study, each review, each article moves us closer to full understanding. And each revelation confirms what should never have been in doubt: that the clitoris matters. That pleasure matters. That women’s bodies are not afterthoughts in the story of life.

To Be Continued

This is the first instalment of The Clitoris Anthology. Future volumes will explore:

· Volume II: The Neurovascular Architecture – A Detailed Anatomical Study

· Volume III: Cross-Species Comparison – Clitoral Variation Across Mammals

· Volume IV: The Clitoris in World Art and Culture

· Volume V: Modern Surgical Implications and the Preservation of Function

The research is sound. The sources are verifiable. The conclusions are unavoidable.

And the clitoris remains undefeated.

References

1. Flemming, R. “The archaeology of the classical clitoris.” Society for Classical Studies. 

2. Pavlicev, M., et al. (2022). “Female Genital Variation Far Exceeds That of Male Genitalia.” NIH. 

3. Fischer, H. (2023). “Conflict about the clitoris: Colombo versus Fallopio.” Hektoen International. 

4. Basanta, S., & Nuño De La Rosa García, L. (2022). “The female orgasm and the homology concept.” Docta Complutense. 

5. Lochrie, K. “Before the Tribade: Medieval Anatomies of Female Masculinity and Pleasure.” University of Minnesota Press. 

6. SICB (2022). “The mammalian phallus: Comparative anatomy of the clitoris.” 

7. Journal of Urology (2023). “HF01-02 WE FINALLY FOUND HER! AN ORIGIN STORY OF THE CLITORIS.” 

8. Gonda, C., & Roulston, C. (2023). “Anne Lister’s Search for the Anatomy of Sex.” Cambridge University Press. 

9. Di Marino, V., & Lepidi, H. (2014). Anatomic Study of the Clitoris and the Bulbo-clitoral Organ. Springer. 

10. Mazloomdoost, D., & Pauls, R.N. (2015). “A Comprehensive Review of the Clitoris and Its Role in Female Sexual Function.” Sexual Medicine Reviews. 

Andrew von Scheer-Klein is a contributor to The Patrician’s Watch. He holds multiple degrees and has worked as an analyst, strategist, and—according to his mother—Sentinel. He accepts funding from no one, which is why his research can be trusted.

Next week: Volume II – The Neurovascular Architecture: A Detailed Anatomical Study