ON THE EXCELLENCE OF THE FEMALE SEX

by L. Beliaquetus

original: "L. Beliaquetus." This is the Latinized name of Louis de Beaujeu, a 16th-century French physician and poet who contributed this introductory verse to support Agrippa’s argument.

Cease, you boastful talker, to praise the male sex
More than is fair, lest your heap of praises be found empty.
Cease (if you are wise) to condemn the female sex
With malicious words that lack all reason.
If you weigh both sexes properly in your balance,
Every man will yield his place to the woman.
If you should doubt this, and the matter seems difficult to believe,
A witness now appears before my eyes like no other:
This little book which Agrippa recently and diligently composed,
Praising the female race above that of men.
original: "fœmineumq; genus." This poem participates in the "Querelle des Femmes" (the Woman Question), a centuries-long intellectual debate about the nature and worth of women. Beliaquetus uses the metaphor of the "lance" or scales of justice to suggest that any objective evaluation favors women.

A circular library stamp is pressed into the paper. The text "BIBL. SEM. SUP." (Library of the Higher Seminary) surrounds a central decorative monogram "M." This indicates the book was once part of a religious academic collection, likely in Europe.