This question was closed without grading. Reason: Errant question
May 9, 2017 10:26
7 yrs ago
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English term
impotence
English
Other
General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
history, 1600
What do you think is the meaning of IMPOTENCE in this context?? Lack of power or inability to have sex?
What follows is the horoscope of Edoardo VI, written by Girolamo Cardano in XVI century.
At the age of twenty-three years, nine months, and twenty-two days, languor of mind and body would afflict him. At the age of thirty-four years, five months, and twenty days, he would suffer from skin disease and a slight fever. After the age of fifty-five years, three months, and seventeen days, various diseases would fall to his lot. As long as he lived he would be constant, rigid, severe, continent, intelligent, a guardian of the right, patient in labour, a rememberer of wrongs and benefits; he would be terrible, and have desires and vices growing from desire, and he would suffer under impotence. He would be most wise, and for that reason the admired of nations; most prudent, magnanimous, fortunate, and, as it were, another Solomon.
What follows is the horoscope of Edoardo VI, written by Girolamo Cardano in XVI century.
At the age of twenty-three years, nine months, and twenty-two days, languor of mind and body would afflict him. At the age of thirty-four years, five months, and twenty days, he would suffer from skin disease and a slight fever. After the age of fifty-five years, three months, and seventeen days, various diseases would fall to his lot. As long as he lived he would be constant, rigid, severe, continent, intelligent, a guardian of the right, patient in labour, a rememberer of wrongs and benefits; he would be terrible, and have desires and vices growing from desire, and he would suffer under impotence. He would be most wise, and for that reason the admired of nations; most prudent, magnanimous, fortunate, and, as it were, another Solomon.
Responses
+2
6 mins
inabilty to attain/sustain erection
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/impotence
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Note added at 7 mins (2017-05-09 10:34:54 GMT)
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in the context of "desires and vices growing from desire, and he would suffer under impotence" this is the meaning IMO. He wanted to have sex but was impotent
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Note added at 7 mins (2017-05-09 10:34:54 GMT)
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in the context of "desires and vices growing from desire, and he would suffer under impotence" this is the meaning IMO. He wanted to have sex but was impotent
+1
9 mins
sexual impotence
Without doing any historical background research, I would say it does mean it in the sexual sense, as it is linked with 'desires' and 'vices', 2 sexually-loaded words. Were it to have meant simply 'powerless', I believe it would have been located in one of the other parts of the text, dealing with his general behaviour. Also, by likening him to Solomon, the suggestion would seem to be that this is indeed someone powerful (he's a ruler of some kind, after all!)
Peer comment(s):
agree |
Tina Vonhof (X)
3 hrs
|
+1
19 mins
impotência (PT) (impotence (EN))
Ho trovato questa parole in un dizionario "multilingue" (I have read this word in a "multilingue" medical dictionary) (I named my confidence level as high, because I read the term in a medical dictionary - Dicionário Médico, English-Portuguese, of Emmanuel Alves).
Example sentence:
as I read the word in a medical dictionary, I prefer not to mention examples to avoid errors
+2
1 hr
impotentia generandi: sterility (inability to procreate)
It is not possible to deduce this from the English, which just uses the word "impotence", but if we look at the source from which it has been translated, Cardano's Geniturarum exemplar (p. 19, towards foot of page), it turns out that the passage reads:
"et generandi impotentia patietur".
https://archive.org/stream/hin-wel-all-00000137-001#page/n24...
So not just "impotentia" but "generandi impotentia".
Two types of impotence are recognised in Canon Law: impotentia coeundi, which includes what we mean by impotence nowadays (though it's not confined to erectile dysfunction; it includes any inability to engage in sexual relations), and impotentia generandi, which is inability to procreate, though it does not necessarily imply inability to have sex. We are dealing here with the second kind:
"The impotency which is a cause of nullity is the incapacity of having conjugal relations (impotentia coeundi), not incapacity of engendering (impotentia generandi), in other words, sterility."
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07695a.htm
"et generandi impotentia patietur".
https://archive.org/stream/hin-wel-all-00000137-001#page/n24...
So not just "impotentia" but "generandi impotentia".
Two types of impotence are recognised in Canon Law: impotentia coeundi, which includes what we mean by impotence nowadays (though it's not confined to erectile dysfunction; it includes any inability to engage in sexual relations), and impotentia generandi, which is inability to procreate, though it does not necessarily imply inability to have sex. We are dealing here with the second kind:
"The impotency which is a cause of nullity is the incapacity of having conjugal relations (impotentia coeundi), not incapacity of engendering (impotentia generandi), in other words, sterility."
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07695a.htm
Note from asker:
Great! Thank you very much Charles Davis. |
Discussion
The same arguments, of course, apply to the preceding words, "have desires and vices growing from desire", which can indeed be read more than one way in isolation. And I agree that "desire" was probably less sexualised in the nineteenth century than it is today. However, once again the Latin source shows that it is sexual. This part reads:
"cupidus, laborabit vitiis circa venerea".
Laborabit means "will be afflicted" ("will labour under" still means this), vitiis means "by vices", and circa venerea means "concerning matters of (sexual) love" (venerea is neuter plural). So in this context, cupidus, which could mean eager/desirous or lecherous, presumably has the latter meaning.
As you say, "impotence" can be non-sexual even today, meaning lack of power or ability. The same, of course, was true in 1854. But its meaning in the sexual context has changed. Now it refers only to erectile dysfunction, but then it meant "incapacity of propagation" (Dr Johnson, 1750), "inability to beget" (Webster, 1828). So it conflated sexual impotence in the modern sense with sterility, both of which prevent "propagation". And the Latin text, as I've indicated, shows that it does refer to sexual reproduction here, but to what we now call sterility rather than impotence. Cardano is saying that Edward would be unable to have children, not (necessarily) that he would be unable to have sex.
(Continued in next post)
As for 'suffer under', this is an archaic alternative to 'suffer from' — I susppose there may be some aanalogy with 'labour under a burden' etc.
Interested to note that the Latin original uses the verb 'patior', clearly linked etymologically with modern FR 'pâtir' with the same meaning: 'to suffer from'.
"As long as he lived he would be constant, rigid, severe, continent, intelligent, a guardian of the right, patient in labour, a rememberer of wrongs and benefits; he would be terrible, and have desires and vices growing from desire, and he would suffer under impotence."
If this were about sexual impotence, then one would expect "he would suffer from impotence", not "he would suffer under impotence". I strongly suspect that it means that he would suffer if he was unable to exercise his (political/diplomatic/military) power.
"Desires and vices" are words that are more sexualised now than they were even as recently as the 19th century, and there is nothing sexual in the preceding text of this sentence.