Women's Secrets: A Translation of Pseudo-Albertus Magnus' de Secretis Mulierum with Commentaries (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780791411438)

Women's Secrets provides the first modern translation of the notorious treatise De secretis mulierum, popular throughout the late middle ages and into modern times. The Secrets deals with human reproduction and was written to instruct celibate medieval monks on the facts of life and some of the ways of the universe. However, the book had a much more far-reaching influence. Lemay shows how its message that women were evil, lascivious creatures built on the misogyny of the work's Aristotelian sources and laid the groundwork for serious persecution of women.

Both the content of the treatise and the reputation of its author (erroneously believed to be Albertus Magnus) inspired a few medieval scholars to compose lengthy commentaries on the text, substantial selections from which are included, providing further evidence of how medieval men interpreted science and viewed the female body.

Author: Helen Rodnite Lemay
ISBN-10: 0791411435
ISBN-13: 9780791411438
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Language: English
Published: 10/14/1992
Pages: 210
Format: Hardcover

About the Author

Helen Rodnite Lemay is Associate Professor of History at State University of New York at Stony Brook.