QUESTION III. How, in the state of innocence, women could have been generated.¹

QVAESTIO III. Quomodo in statu innocentiae foeminae generari potuissent.

But what we said, from Aristotle's opinion, that the female is something imperfect and procreated beyond the intention of the generator, as it were by occasion — it pleases me to make more known and attested to the reader by the Prince of Philosophers' own words here set down. Thus he writes (book 2 On the Generation of Animals, chapter 3): “The female is, as it were, a damaged male.” And (book 4, chapter 2), when he had said that the male is a perfect animal but the female imperfect, he subjoins: “The indications,” he says, “are furnished by the things that happen. For a youthful and a senescent age generate females more than the flourishing age, for in the one the heat is not yet perfect, in the other it fails. More humid and effeminate bodies also generate females rather, and moist seeds rather than thick do the same. For all these things come about from a natural lack of heat.” And in the following chapter he teaches that nature, in the generation of a woman, fails and degenerates, writing thus: “But the first beginning of degenerating is for a female to be generated, not a male; yet this is necessary to nature, for the kind must be preserved of those which are distinguished into female and [male...] [continues]³

Quod autem diximus ex sententia Aristotelis, foeminam esse quiddam imperfectum & praeter intentionem generantis velut ex occasione procreatum, libet Principis Philosophorú propriis verbis hic appositis lectori notius & testatius facere. Sic ille scribit lib. 2. de Generatione Animalium, cap. 3. Foemina quasi mas laesus est. Et lib. 4. cap. 2. cú dixisset marem esse animal perfectum, foeminam verò imperfectum, subdit, Indicia, inquit, faciunt res quae accidút. Nouella enim & senescens aetas magis quàm florens foeminas generat, in altera enim calor nondum perfectus est, in altera deficit. Humidiora etiam effoeminatioraq́ corpora foeminá potius gignunt, & semina humida magis quàm spissa hoc idem faciunt. Haec enim omnia eueniunt caloris inopia naturalis. Et capite sequéti docet naturam in generatione mulieris deficere ac degenerare, ita scribens, Sed initium primum degenerádi est foeminam generari non marem; verùm hoc necessarium est naturae, genus enim seruari oportet eorum quae foemina & [mare...]

[...for the kind must be preserved of those which are distinguished into female and male]. But since it can happen that sometimes the seed of the male does not prevail — whether on account of a youthful or senile age, or on account of some other cause of this kind — a female must, for that reason, be begotten.” Finally, in chapter 6 of the same book: “Females,” he says, “are by their nature weaker and colder, and the female sex is to be thought, as it were, a natural injury and detriment.” Thus far Aristotle: who indeed, in the seventh book of the Politics, chapter 16, seems to hand down things not unlike these.⁴

[...genus enim seruari oportet eorum quae foemina & mare] distinguuntur. Sed cum fieri possit ne aliquando semen superet maris, aut ob aetatem iuuenilem senilémue, aut ob aliam eiusmodi causam, foeminam ob eam rem gigni necesse est. Denique in eiusdem libri cap. 6. Sunt, inquit, foeminae sua natura debiliores frigidioresq́, & sexum foemineum quasi laesionem naturalem & detrimentum esse putandum est. Hactenus Aristoteles: qui quidem & in libro septimo Politicorum, cap. 16. his non dissimilia tradere videtur.

[...By the blasts of the North wind more than the South], males are begotten.” And a little below: “Shepherds say that it matters to the breeding of male and female cattle, not only if it happens that the coupling occurs by North or South winds, but also if, when the herd mates, it faces toward the North or the South. Thus sometimes, by the smallest moment, a cause of heat or cold is given, and these complete the cause of generation.” And in the sixth book On the History of Animals, chapter nineteen, Aristotle writes in these words: “Males or females are generated by the force both of waters and of the studs. For waters too cause females or males to be conceived. Besides, by the blast of the North wind males are rather conceived, by the South, females. So great is the force of the North wind, that it even changes those which bring forth only females to the procreation of male offspring. They ought to face the North when the females couple.” Thus Aristotle. And let this be the first cause of generating a male or a female.⁷

[...Flatibus Aquilonis magis quàm Austrinis], mares gignuntur. Et paulò infra: Pastores aiunt interesse ad maris ac foeminae pecoris foeturam, non solùm si ita accidit vt initus Aquilonis Austrinísue flatibus fiat, sed etiam si cum pecus coit, spectat ad Aquilonem aut Austrum. Ita minimo interdum momento causa datur caliditatis aut frigiditatis, haec verò causam complent generationis. In libro autem sexto de Historia animalium, capite decimonono, his verbis scribit Aristoteles: Mares aut foeminae generantur vi tum aquarum, tum admissariorum. Nam & aquae faciunt vt foeminae marésue concipiantur. Adhaec, Aquilonis flatu mares potius concipiuntur, Austri foeminae. Vis tantú est Aquilonis, vt vel ea quae non nisi foeminas pariant immutet ad prolis masculae procreationem. Spectare ad Aquilonem oportet, cum coeunt foeminae. Sic Aristoteles. Atque haec sit prima causa generandi marem aut foeminam.