Declamation on the Nobility and Preeminence of the Female Sex

The quarantine has me reading weird stuff recommended by Tumblr like this 1529 treatise on the moral and theological superiority of women. Agrippa wrote this for his patroness Margaret of Austria. Agrippa’s basic thesis is that not only are women amazing, but they are in fact better than men, and here’s why. He has the receipts, folks. Sure they include some very atypical interpretations of both the Bible and Classical Literature, but that’s not about to stop our friend Heinrich.
Enjoy a few of his reasons with me (and I’m only lightly paraphrasing here):
Women are better swimmers
Eve was the last of God’s creations. God had to stop with her, because He had hit perfection with Woman and could go no further.
Women are just SO show more PRETTY, therefore they are full of divine glory.
Men tend to grow bald in old age, and women don’t. A clear mark of female superiority.
Women are clean and men are gross. Just look at the water after each takes a bath. Ew.
Christ took the form of a man because Man is more humble, Woman is more noble.
Every heresy you ever heard of? A man thought it up. Check mate.
There are many stories in the Bible of women who lie, cheat, and even murder, yet are praised for their actions. Conclusion: The wickedness of women is held in higher esteem than the good deeds of men.
It is mothers and nurses who teach their children to speak.
Lawmakers are wicked for keeping women from preaching, as they clearly did in the Bible.
Beyond these and other wonderful reasons for female superiority, Agrippa drops a couple of truth bombs. After listing a series of women poets from antiquity he writes, “yea, except it had been forbidden women to learn letters in these days, even now, as yet might be had women of most famous learning, more excellent in wit than men.” Indeed. How many wonderful books is the world missing because women were not given the right to learn to read and write?
So if you are bored and would like to read something that is in no way typical of its time period, then you could do worse than Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa and his overwhelming love for women.

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A75977.0001.001?view=toc show less

I heavily suggest reading this book alongside Poel, Marc van der. Cornelius Agrippa, the Humanist Theologian and His Declamations / by Marc van Der Poel. Leiden [etc: Brill, 1997.

Agrippa, disciple of Trithemius was a rare defender of the female sex in these days, so all his arguments need to be put in socio-historical context.

His own wife perished in the black death plague, as he was desperately attempting to find a cure to this illness as a renown plague-doctor, and with the help of his assistant, supposedly - he found one, yet this is shrouded in legend.

I heavily suggest reading this book alongside Poel, Marc van der. Cornelius Agrippa, the Humanist Theologian and His Declamations / by Marc van Der Poel. Leiden [etc: Brill, 1997.

Agrippa, disciple of Trithemius was a rare defender of the female sex in these days, so all his arguments need to be put in socio-historical context.

His own wife perished in the black death plague, as he was desperately attempting to find a cure to this illness as a renown plague-doctor, and with the help of his assistant, supposedly - he found one, yet this is shrouded in legend.

DE LA NOBLEZA Y PREEXCELENCIA DEL SEXO FEMENINO

INTRODUCCIÓN

Heinrich Cornelio Agrippa von Nettesheim nació en Colonia
el 14 de septiembre de 1486. Su padre, Heinrich von Nettesheim,
fue un modesto ciudadano de Colonia del que apenas hay
noticias, aunque en 1526 el propio Agrippa reclamó el carácter noble
de su familia, y sus primeros biógrafos afirmaron que el
epíteto "von" indicaba su origen patricio o caballeresco.

Los primeros datos fehacientes sobre Agrippa nos remontan
al año 1501: tras finalizar sus pretendidos estudios de medicina
y leyes en Colonia, con sus escasos quince años, nuestro hombre
está enrolado en las tropas de Maximiliano I en calidad de
estratega militar, servicio que se prolongaría hasta el año 1506.
Fue en ese show more mismo año cuando Agrippa, abandonando su tierra
natal dirigió sus pasos hacia París, para establecer contacto con
una sociedad' presidida por Faber Stapulensis, sobrenombre...

1. La naturaleza secreta de esta sociedad es ambigua. Parece que el mismo Agrippa
fundó una sociedad secreta, la Sodalitium, entregada a estudios alquímcos, sociedad
que algunos han confundido con el círculo de Léfevre. En cualquier caso, y al margen
de esta sociedad secreta, los contactos de Agrippa con el entorno editorial de
Léfevre en París es indudable. Sobre las sociedades secretas en la época que nos
ocupa es interesante la tesis sostenida por F. Yates en La filosofia oculia en la época show less