Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Gender, Anatomy

    Detailed analysis of H Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim's Nobility of the Female Sex and the Superiority of Woman over Man. Surveys the evidence on which Agrippa supports his arguments, including the Biblical point that woman was 'made better than man and received the better name', and 'is made of purer matter'. (364–65). Describes how Agrippa held that 'every difference of structure between the man and the woman gives to woman the advantage due to her superior delicacy'. Notes that Agrippa supported this with such observations as the fact that 'Even after death nature respects [woman's] inherent modesty, for a drowned woman floats on her face, and a drowned man on his back'. (365) Notes Agrippa's affirmation that 'philosophers, mathematicians, and astrologers' are 'often inferior to country-women in their divinations and predictions', and that the doctor is inferior to 'the old nurse' (368).