De Secretis Mulierum et Virtutibus Herbarum, Lapidum et Animalium

CHAPTER ONE.

Decorative initial 'P' with ornate floral and foliate scrollwork patterns.
After our previous discourse has addressed those matters which incline the listener's attention toward the subject of our writing, it is now appropriate to descend into the actual substance of the work: and first, to examine the generation of the embryo. In accordance with this, it must be noted diligently and committed to memory that every human who is naturally conceived is generated from the father's seed and the mother's menses original: "menstruo"; in medieval embryology, the "menstruum" was often viewed as the female equivalent of seed or the raw material from which the fetus was fashioned., according to the consensus of all Philosophers and Physicians. And I specify "Physicians" because Aristotle Aristotle (384–322 BC), the Greek philosopher whose theories on "form" and "matter" shaped medieval science. did not propose that the father's seed becomes part of the physical substance of the fetus; rather, he says the fetus proceeds only from the menses, and afterward, he posits that the paternal seed evaporates away like a vapor. Physicians, however, say that the entire seed—both from the father (which is called sperm sperma: the male reproductive fluid) and from the mother (which is called the menses menstruum: here used to denote the female's material contribution to conception)—combines to form the physical substance of the fetus.

Chapter of the first practical part, in which he intends to approach the subject matter, namely to demonstrate the generation of the embryo or fetus. There is no controversy between Physicians and Philosophers regarding the basic components. For the philosophers say that the seed of the man, joined with the menses of the woman, relates to the woman's menses as a craftsman relates to his craft. Thus, just as a Carpenter is solely the efficient cause The "efficient cause" is the agent that brings something into being, like the builder of a house. and the house is the effect—meaning he transforms the material of the house—