Complete Works of Lactantius, Vol. I

Now the lofty breadth of the chest, exposed to the eyes, presents a wonderful dignity of its own bearing. The cause of this is that God seems to have formed man alone as if supine (for almost no other animal can lie on its back), but fashioned dumb creatures as if lying on their sides, and pressed to the earth. For this reason, they have a narrow chest, removed from view, and cast down toward the ground: but for man it is open and erect; because, being full of reason given from heaven, it ought not to have been humble or indecorous. The nipples, too, lightly prominent and crowned with darker and small circles, add not a little grace, given to women for nourishing offspring, to men for ornament alone, lest the chest appear unformed and as if mutilated. Below this is the plain of the belly, which the navel marks in almost the center with a not indecorous sign, made for this purpose, that through it the fetus may be nourished while it is in the womb.

CHAPTER XI.

It follows necessarily that I must also begin to speak of the internal organs: in which are hidden not beauty, but incredible utility; since it had been necessary that this earthly body be nourished by some food and drink, just as the earth [is nourished] by rains and frosts. The most foresighted artisan therefore made a receptacle for it for food, by which, when concocted and liquefied, He might distribute vital juices to all the members. But since man consists of body and soul, the receptacle I mentioned above provides nourishment for the body alone: for the soul, however, He made another seat. For He made a certain kind of soft and porous viscera, which we call the lung, into which breath might come and go in a reciprocal alternation; and He fashioned it in the manner of a bellows, so that it might not be poured out at once, or be inflated at once. And therefore, He did not make it full, but inflatable and capable of air; so that...

B

...a physician of Orléans, would prefer to read with six mss. and 9 editions, but one is connected to the flesh of the hand for the sake of beauty; and this seems to him to be the genuine meaning of our Author, since Lactantius in this work attends mostly to the elegance and beauty of the body. Otherwise, it is connected to the hand would rather please him. It would also please Eustachius, another physician of Orléans, who nevertheless with the manuscript Pen. prefers to read, it is clothed with flesh to the hand. He warns that Lactantius errs in that he says there are only two protruding joints in the thumb, when it has three, of which the first one is not of the bones of the hand, to which there is no sensible motion, while the motion of the first joint is most manifest. Thus our Firmianus (as is gathered from the middle of the fifth chapter, seems to have acknowledged two kinds of joints in the thumb, namely two protruding and visible, and the other bound to the hand, and covered by muscles, which is the third, One is indeed clothed with flesh to the hand; Jo. Cauci, clothed with flesh.

Now the lofty breadth of the chest. Either now, or by a lighter mutation, it should be read [as a new section], or many things are missing, as the learned men Betuleius, Francius, Isaeus, Sparkius, and Walchius have noted. Aristotle, also Galen and Pollux, place the chest τὸ στῆθος the chest below the treatment of the hands. Otherwise, the reasons why the Creator gave man a broad chest are far better than those of Aristotle. See Aristotle in 4 On the Parts [of Animals]. BETULEIUS.

Another. It is missing in ms. Bon., Bov. in some editions, and that correctly.

Cast down [abjectum]. I restored this from mss. 2 Bonon., Regio-Put. and 4 others Reg., Cauc. 5, Colb., Tax., Ultr., Pen., Em., Cant., Claron., Ed. Rom. 1470, Is., Cellar., Walch., favored by 1 Reg., 1 Colb. and Brun., in which it is adjectum added, for abjectum; Baluz., objectum cast toward; in 10 printed [editions], subjectum placed below/subjected.

Man [homini]. Thus it is to be read from most mss. and editions, and also from the preceding word "to them" [illis]. In 12 manuscripts and 4 printed copies it is hominis of man.

Open and erect. This is the reading of the edition Graph. and all mss., except 1 Reg. recent, in which, as also in other editions, it is rectum straight.

Full of reason given from heaven. Thus I restored from mss. Regio-Put., 2 other Reg., 4 Colbert., Marm., Em., Meron., Claron., by the first hand, and ed. Graph. In another Colb. it is given from heaven [e cœlo]; in the other Colbert. given to heaven [a cœlo datum]; 3 Reg., Baluz., 1 Colb., Claron. by a second hand and the editions given to heaven [a cœlo datum].

C

The nipples, too, lightly prominent. 5 recent mss. and editions have leniter gently. But leviter lightly is a better reading than leniter. For here it is a question of the prominence of the part, rather than the smoothness of the skin. HECQUET, a physician of Paris. Juvenal, Sat. 6 on Messalina, the wife of Claudius Caesar. Martial, lib. VIII, epist. 64:

And may such a swelling excite the nipples,
As a raw girl keeps for her husband.

Below this is the plain of the belly, etc. The γαστὴρ ἀπερίττος belly without excess, such as the younger Philostratus in Meleager. The main thing in the belly is that it should be flat; the foundation is the navel, the belly is flat. A foul belly is ugly. Horat. Epod. Od. 8. JUNIUS.

The navel with a not indecorous, etc. Arist. lib. VII On Animals, ch. 8, and lib. II On the Generation of Animals, ch. 4. Hippocrates On the Nature of the Child.

Receptacle, for the body alone. For to Plato it is also called ὠνομασμένη κάτω κοιλία ὑποδοχὴ the lower belly receptacle; to the Latins, the stomach or ventricle; to Cicero, the abdomen. Its office is the concoction of food. BETULEIUS.

But for the soul. That is, for the vital spirit. FRANCIUS.
Soft. [Molle] μαλακόν soft. Plato, Ovid.

You see how blood is sent back from the soft lung.

For it consists of smooth and rough arteries; and both Galen and Celsus say, it is spongy.

D

Into which breath might come and go in a reciprocal alternation. These have mss. 2 Bon., 2 Reg., 2 Colb., Sor. Claron. in the margin and 15 common [editions]. But those are absent from mss. and edit. 2 vet. Rom. and Cellar.

In the womb [in uteri]. Heuman reads in uteris in the wombs.

So that it might not be poured out at once, or be inflated at once. In the mss. you will often find simul at once for semel once, and vice versa. In 19 mss. it is semel, bis once, twice.

And therefore He did not make the organ full. mss. Reg. and all editions except ed.-Rom. 1468 [have] ne. It is absent from 29 mss. But surely plenum full is to be retained, that is, not compacted, as is the custom in certain viscera, which are called Parenchymata, where [they are] tightly packed and densified with glands and vessels, such as the liver. Concerning the lung it is otherwise; it is an organ distinguished by a thousand pipes and vesicles. Therefore, the meaning is: He did not make it a full organ, but inflatable, etc. For it could not have been inflated if it had been a full organ, like the parenchyma; and therefore it had to be a passage through a thousand [ways]. HECQUET.