Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 39

[cahn]

Last post, along with the usual 18th-century suspects, included the Ottonians; changing ideas of conception and women's sexual pleasure; Isabella of Parma (the one who fell in love, and vice versa, with her husband's sister); Henry IV and Bertha (and Henry's second wife divorcing him for "unspeakable sexual acts"). (Okay, Isabella of Parma was 18th century.)

Comments

[mildred_of_midgard]

Haha, I figured after last post you'd change the title. :)

The changing ideas of conception was at least partly 18th century, though! To which I have the following to add, which I ran across today. Lorenzo Nannoni, prominent surgeon in Florence in the late 18th century

...always remained faithful to the doctrine that science was meant to serve people, not people science. He declared artificial insemination in human beings to be ridiculous, no matter what the great Lazzaro Spallanzani said to the contrary. Who is she, he asked, "who would prefer an annoying little squirt to a sweet, pleasant, virile instrument and then abstain from the use of the latter for nine whole months, just to test the thesis of a philosopher?"

Since I'm currently on hold from the podcast and the Middle Ages, and am reading a bio of Leopold II, you're going to get more 18th century from me in this post tomorrow. I'm also going to move the most recent Trenck comment here for ease of discussion.

[luzula]

Who is she, he asked, "who would prefer an annoying little squirt to a sweet, pleasant, virile instrument and then abstain from the use of the latter for nine whole months, just to test the thesis of a philosopher?"

Ha ha ha! I wonder if he had tried that as a pick-up line. "Who are you to abstain from my sweet, pleasant, virile instrument?".

[cahn]

OMG, right?? (I laughed pretty hard, both at the original quote and and your response.)