DISCOURSE I.

ON THE THREE

TYPES OF

DOMESTIC SOCIETY.

CHAPTER I.

On Conjugal Society.

Decorative woodcut initial 'R' at the start of the first paragraph, featuring foliate and floral ornamentation.
Giovanni Nevizzano original: "Ioann. Nevizanus," an Italian jurist (d. 1540) famous for his work Sylva Nuptialis, which explored the legal and social aspects of marriage spoke quite rightly in his Nuptial Forest, Book 1, Chapter 1: Through moderate debate, he says, the mind is not unprofitably exercised, because the truth, when examined more often, shines more brightly into the light. For this reason, Jason Jason de Mayno (1435–1519), a celebrated Italian professor of law often used to say that when he was a young man and doubted any article in the course of his lectures, he would propose a formal Conclusion on it in the academic circles. And among the other reasons why the Law of Muhammad original: "Lex Mahumeti" is condemned, one is this: because he forbade any debate concerning his law, lest its falsity be uncovered. I shall follow the same path and propose something concerning matters that are as useful as they are pleasant; for the sake of learning, not teaching; and of inquiring, not judging. And I shall do so briefly, since in my Treatise on Marriage, many things pertaining to this Chapter have already been addressed.

The first society is in marriage; and this is rightly considered the beginning of establishing a city, the workshop of humanity, and the nursery for expanding the Republic original: "seminarium Reipublicæ," a common metaphor in early modern political thought viewing the family as the seedbed of the state. Plato, Laws, Book 4. Tholosanus, On the Republic, Book 19, Chapter 6. Bodin, On the Republic, Book 1, Chapter 1. Henning Arnisaeus, Treatise on the Law of Marriage, Chapter 1, Section 1. And since marital union is so arranged by Nature that it grants perpetuity to the human race, and through the procreation of children the generations remain continually renewed—with the mercy of God granting immortality to Nature as much as is possible—the study of marriage ought rightly to be of the greatest concern to those who rule. Columella, On Agriculture, Book 12, Chapter 1. Novels 22, at the beginning original: "Novell. 22," referring to the Novellae Constitutiones, a collection of laws issued by the Emperor Justinian. Rittershusius, On the Novels, Part 4, Chapter 1, at the beginning. Indeed, Nature seems to suggest that those things which pertain to intimacy original: "ὁμιλίαν" (homilian), meaning social intercourse, conversation, or domestic fellowship, or the conversation between husband and wife, should be beautifully managed first of all. Economics, Book 1, Chapter 2. And among all those things that pertain to human beings, the first care ought to be for the society between wife and husband; for from this all other societies, as well as domestic possessions, depend, etc. Ibid., Chapter 3, Book 1. It is most natural to procreate one’s like: but this is reverently...