FROM THE CABALA TO THE GLORIFICATION OF WOMAN: AGRIPPA VON NETTESHEIM'S DE NOBILITATE ET PRÆCELLENTIA FŒMINI SEXUS

Abstract

ABSTRACTAgrippa von Nettesheim's De Nobilitate et præcellentia fœmini sexus (1509) is one of the most revolutionary manifestos of the Renaissance, since it not only sets out to demonstrate the superiority of the feminine over the male sex but does so through the cabalistic methods introduced by Johannes Reuchlin in De Verbo mirifico (1494). According to such teaching, the essence of all creatures was to be found in their Hebrew names, bestowed on them by God: so while Adam signifies ‘earth’, Eve's name is linked to the name Yahweh itself, and means ‘life’. Thus God had spoken, and so all further arguments employed by Agrippa – exegetic, moral, aesthetic, legal, medical and other discourses – gain strength from that decisive foundational argument. Agrippa's entire system of proof, not merely his principal argument, is thus diametrically opposed to scholastic tradition: all conventional authorities, from Aristotle onwards, are systematically ignored. Thus Agrippa joined in the querelle des femmes, ignited in the fifteenth century, and adopted many of its arguments in favour of women, but he importantly strengthened them with medical and cabalistic arguments. His work is the first Renaissance treatise whose methods derive so extensively from humanistic‐cabalistic principles.