“The master rose and was about to try to calm his disciple when, to his amazement, he saw between his patient’s
legs a perfectly formed, erect and diminutive penis….Intuitively, the anatomist took hold of the strange organ between his thumb and index finger, and with the index finger of his other hand he began gently caressing the red and engorged gland. He then observed that every muscle in the patient’s body, up to then completely relaxed, tensed suddenly and involuntarily, while the organ grew somewhat in size and throbbed with brief contractions…. Mateo Colombo continued to rub the protuberance between his fingers, like someone rubbing a twig against a stone in order to make fire. Suddenly, as if he had finally managed to light a spark, ines’s entire body shook with one great convulsion that made her lift her hips and balance her body on her head and heels, like an arch….`How dare you?’ she would whisper, spreading her legs as far as possible. `I’m a mother three times over!’ rubbing her nipples. `How dare you?’ she’d implore again and again and let him carry on.” – From The Anatomist by Federico Andahazi. The controversial novel deals with the real life story of Matthew Realdo Colombo(1516-1569), Professor of Anatomy and surgeon of University of padua, Italy, who discovered the clitoris while examining his patient Dona Ines Torremolinos calling the little organ "The pleasure of venus".
The novel centres around anatomy professor Mateo Colombo, and the two women – a rich pious widow Ines de Torremolinos, and Mona Sofia, the most beautiful and expensive courtesan in Venice in the 16th century Venice. Mateo Colombo has been charged with heresy and has been placed under house arrest for consistently violating the instructions of Pope Boniface VIII forbidding obtaining cadavers for dissection, by discovering a dangerous new anatomical structure in the female body, the clitoris! Mateo Colombo was summoned to examine a virtuous lady named Inés de Torremolinos. While examining her, the anatomist was surprised to find a perfectly shaped, erect and tiny penis between his patient’s legs . There was an exhilarating reaction in the patient when he started stroking and massaging the organ, "(Her) breathing became hoarser and then broke into a loud panting . . . Her lifeless features changed into a lascivious grimace . . . Subsequent explorations about this tiny organ made with Mona Sofia, the extravagant whore, as well as with female cadavers, universalized Colombo’s discovery about the clitoris. Mateo, was madly in love with Mona Sofia, but she was strictly business. He finally succeded in securing her love and her body through discovery of this significant organ of the female body. The way discovery made by Christopher Columbus changed the world that followed, in a similar way Mateo Colombo’s “discovery” of the clitoris in 1557 brought about a significant change In the world followed with this. Written about in 1558 it was placed on the list of forbidden books in the year of Mateo’s death, 1559. This discovery for the European world of his time was unknown to a large majority of the people until Andahazi penned down this historical fiction. It is not surprising that even in the modern era the role of clitoris in the sex life is unknown to many. Mateo Colombo pleads that the "amor veneris" or clitoris performs in women "similar functions to those of the soul in men, " although its nature "is utterly different since it depends entirely on the body." According to him since the clitoris is responsible for female behavior, it must be analogous to the soul, which inspire male behavior. The novel culminates with a tragic note when Mona Sofia, suffering from acute syphilis breathes her last before Mateo.`Your time is up,’ he heard her say, before letting out a hoarse whisper, her last.The author Federico Andahazi is from Argentina and was a finalist for the coveted Planeta prize for the book in 1996. At the same time, The Anatomist bagged the first prize of the Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat, although shocked with the contents of the book, the mentor of the prize Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat issued a communiqué in almost all Newspapers of Buenos Aires that she did not agree with the decisions of the jury in view of the work not contributing to exalt the most high values of the human spirit. The book was held in high esteem by many celebrated authors of Argentina including the jury of the prize comprising Maria Angelca Bosco, Raul Castagnino, Mary Granata, Jose Maria Castineira of God, Eduardo Gudino Kieffer etc.