INTERVIEWS WITH BIBLIOPHILES: JULIA MARTINS
Can you present yourself ? I’m Julia Martins, and I’m a historian – I’m particularly interested in gender history and the history of medicine and alchemy. I grew up in Brazil and I took my undergraduate studies in history there, before moving to Paris and Bologna for my master’s degrees, in which I analysed the translations of early modern books of secrets. Then I moved to London for my PhD, where I continued to research the topic of how knowledge is reshaped as it is diffused, focusing on the translation of recipes about reproduction and the female body – everything from conception to childbirth! I currently have a YouTube channel and blog, Living History, where I explore the history of everyday life and make academic research accessible. I also run a feminist book club for charity, called My Body, My Book Club. How did you start to collect books or to develop an interest for art and culture ? I grew up surrounded by books; my mother worked as a translator and many of the books in our