ENGLISHLATIN

Declamation on the nobility and preeminence of the female sex

By Rabil , Albert; Agrippa von Nettesheim , Heinrich Cornelius

Book information

Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Year
1996
ISBN
0-226-01058-9, 9780226010588, 9780226010601, 0226010600, 0-226-01059-7
Language
englishlatin
Format
PDF
Filesize
9 MB (9695945 bytes)
Series
Other voice in early modern Europe
Edition
New edition
Pages
109\143
Time added
2015-12-23 22:00:00
Women -- Early works to 1800. Fem

Description

Originally published in 1529, the Declamation on the Preeminence and Nobility of the Female Sex argues that women are more than equal to men in all things that really matter, including the public spheres from which they had long been excluded. Rather than directly refuting prevailing wisdom, Agrippa uses women's superiority as a rhetorical device and overturns the misogynistic interpretations of the female body in Greek medicine, in the Bible, in Roman and canon law, in theology and moral philosophy, and in politics. He raised the question of why women were excluded and provided answers based not on sex but on social conditioning, education, and the prejudices of their more powerful oppressors. His declamation, disseminated through the printing press, illustrated the power of that new medium, soon to be used to generate a larger reformation of religion.

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