On the Nobility and Excellence of the Female Sex

ON THE NOBILITY AND EXCELLENCE [OF THE FEMALE SEX] original: "DE NOBILIT. ET PRAECEL" – Part of the full title De Nobilitate et Praecellentia Foeminei Sexus.

...vessel. The text likely refers to the body as a "vessel" or container of the soul. A man, however, no matter how much he is washed, as often as he washes again, he muddies and disturbs the water. Added to this is the fact that, by nature's design, superfluities A Renaissance medical term for excess bodily fluids or waste. are expelled from women every month through more secret places; in men, however, these are continually emitted through the face—which is supposed to be the most dignified part of the human body. Agrippa is satirically suggesting that a man’s beard is actually the body’s way of "draining" waste through the face, whereas women's "waste" is hidden and periodic.

Furthermore, since among all other living creatures it is granted only to humans to lift their faces toward heaven, Ovid Agrippa cites the Roman poet Ovid, who famously wrote about man's upright posture in Metamorphoses. nature and fortune have wonderfully provided for women in this regard and spared them so much that, if they happen to fall by chance or accident, women almost always fall on their backs, and are either never or very rarely thrown forward on their heads or faces. This was a common argument in the Renaissance for "divine modesty"—that nature protects a woman's modesty even during an accidental fall by ensuring she lands on her back.

And why (not to omit this point) do we not see that in the procreation of the human race, nature has preferred women to men? This is most clearly evident because, according to the testimony of Galen Claudius Galenus (129–c. 216 AD), the most influential physician of the Roman Empire. and Avicenna, Ibn Sina or Avicenna (c. 980–1037), the Persian polymath whose Canon of Medicine was the standard text in European universities. only the female seed Galen, On Seed, book 2 is the matter and nourishment of the fetus. On the Use of Parts, book 14 The man's contribution is minimal, for his role enters into the process only as an accident accident: In Aristotelian philosophy, an "accident" is a non-essential quality that does not change the essence of a thing. to the substance. For the greatest and chief duty of women, Avicenna, Canon, Book 1, Fen 1, Doc 5 as the law says, is to conceive and protect that which is conceived. For this reason, we see that most children resemble their mothers, because they are procreated from their blood. This is most apparent in the physical build of the body, but it is always true of their character; for if mothers are foolish, the sons also become foolish; but if mothers are wise, their sons reflect their wisdom. Conversely, in the case of fathers, even if they are wise themselves, they mostly beget foolish sons; and foolish fathers may produce wise sons, provided the mother is wise. Nor is there any other reason why mothers...