Female Pre-eminence…
Female Superiority Proved
Agrippa Von Nettesheim, Henry Cornelius. Female Pre-eminence: or the Dignity and Excellency of that Sex, above the Male. An ingenious Discourse: Written originally in Latin, by Henry Cornelius Agrippa, Knight, Doctor of Physick, Doctor of both Laws, and Privy-Counsellor to the Emperour Charles the Fifth. Done into English, with Additional Advantages by H.C. [Henry Care]. London: Printed by T.R. and M.D. and are to be sold by Henry Million, at the Sign of the Bible in Fleet-Street, 1670.
12mo.; bookplate of Arthur John Booth on the front pastedown; lower edges and lower outer corners throughout very nearly restored (the only loss of print is from the rule border of the title page which has been carefully filled-in); contemporary sheep, neatly rebacked and restored. In a specially made cloth slipcase.
Second edition of Henry Care’s translation of De nobilitate et praecellentia foeminei sexus (1529), the earliest work by the German occultist and mystic Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa Von Nettesheim. Agrippa, deriving his arguments from cabalistic lore, seeks to prove not woman’s equality, but woman’s superiority. Blaming masculine tyranny for the oppression of womankind, he founds his theories on such premises as body hair, missing ribs, and original sin.
The first English translation—Treatise on the Nobility of Womankind—appeared in 1542, in a version prepared by the poet, political writer and journalist Henry Care, whose used the occasion of his first book to include a fulsome dedication to Queen Katherine intended to promote his credentials as a royalist (p. 3-4). The present edition, which includes a two page tribute to Henry Care and a five page address “To the Ladies, on this Ingenious Discourse of Female Pre-eminence,” both by “T.M.,” was “licens’d Septem. 1. 1670,” by Roger L’Estrange, according to the notice opposite the title page; and includes two pages of ads in the rear of books sold by Henry Million. A sampling from the translator’s preface will convey the spirit in which the translation was undertaken:
In this giddy Age wherein each extravagant opinion finds a welcome, and Conceits more wild than any Bedlam-frenzy, have been entertained with zeal, and promoted with passion, an innocent Paradox may fairly hope for Pardon at least, if not Applause.
Since (1) Tyranny, (2) Injustice, (3) Ugliness, and (4) Folly itself, have not wanted their respective Advocates among the Learned, I see small reason why Asserting the Pre-eminence of the Female Sex, should too severely be censured. But 'tis unjust to debar Readers of that tickling delight they take in finding faults, it being often-times all the consideration they have for laying out their Money. The Stationers humor and mine agree, Let them but buy the Book, and then (being their own) use it as they please. I shall not therefore waste time, either in Courting or Hussing the Reader, (for both ways are now commonly used to surprise his good opinion,) but only endeavor to give an Impartial Account of the Author, and Design of the ensuing Discourse.
To say much of the noble Agrippa, were to put an Affront on the Reader, (if he pretend at all to traffic in the Commonwealth of Learning) by supposing him a stranger to that Man, who was justly admired as the Prodigy of his Age, for all kind of Science. That vast progress he made, Tam Marte quam Mercurio, in Arms no less than Arts; the Titles and Honors he acquired, the respect paid him by most of the Grandees, and famous Men, his Contemporaries; and those Monuments of Learning, wherewith he has obliged Posterity; all speak him a Person above the ordinary level of mankind; to be ranked only among those few noble Heroes;
…'Tis true, (like all great Wits) he took no little pleasure in stemming the impetuous Tide of popular opinion, as if nothing had been impregnable against the puissance of his parts. Hence he made that desperate (5) Onset, to prove in particular, what Solomo
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