On the Nobility and Excellence of the Female Sex

BY HENRY CORNELIUS AGRIPPA

While I myself hesitated with a strange fear of ingratitude and even sacrilege, my shame was conquered, and I have become bolder in writing. I feared I would appear even more audacious if I remained silent, interpreting it as a good omen—as if the responsibility for this subject, which the assembly of learned men seems to have utterly neglected until now, had been left and decreed to me by the powers above.

Therefore, I shall give yearly glory to woman and I will not hide her excellence. I am so far from being ashamed of the argument I have taken up, or from thinking I should be blamed if I prefer women to men, that I barely believe I will be excused for having embraced such a sublime matter in a style more humble than is fitting. My only defense is the shortage of time, the difficulty of the task, and the justice of the cause; furthermore, I have undertaken this work with no desire for flattery or the pursuit of favor. Therefore, my aim was not so much to adorn my words with rhetorical fictions and dutiful lies original: "officiosisque mendaciis." A common Renaissance term for "white lies" or polite exaggerations used in courtly praise. in these praises, but rather to demonstrate the matter itself through reason, authority, examples, and the testimonies of the Sacred Scriptures and both laws The phrase "both laws" (utriusque iuris) refers to the two legal pillars of the time: Civil Law (Roman law) and Canon Law (Church law)..

But to you, most Serene Margaret—among the illustrious women of this age throughout the whole world, whom Apollo, Diana, Day, Aurora, and Vulcan (those five gods) Agrippa uses these deities as metaphors for the celestial bodies and light: the Sun, Moon, Day, Dawn, and Fire. He claims even these cosmic lights have not looked upon her equal. have not outshone in the nobility of your lineage, the excellence of your virtues, or the glory of your deeds—to you, I dedicate and devote this work of mine. I do this so that you—who have ascended to such a height of virtue that you have surpassed in your life and character everything preached in praise of the female sex—may be a present example and a most faithful witness. Through you, the honor and glory of your sex may shine more splendidly than the sun...