If the Marvels is a more theoretical treatise than the Experiments, it is none the less almost equally experimental in character. Its particular marvels are also put in the form of experiments, and even in the more scholastic and reasoned introduction and conclusion the author, as we have seen, constantly appeals to experience, and closely associates experimentation and magic by such phrases as “all the marvelousness of experiments and marvels.” He also employs the verb experimentari as well as the classical form experiri, thus suggesting definitely that he means “to experiment” and not merely “to experience.” The De mirabilibus mundi, in fine, as well as the Experimenta Alberti, belongs to the category of “books of experiment” or “experimental books” which we have heard William of Auvergne and the Speculum astronomiae mention, and to which our next two chapters will be further devoted. Some of the items of the De mirabilibus mundi will be found duplicated or closely paralleled in these other experimental books, as we have already noted in the case of the Liber vaccae or Liber Anguemis, and as Berthelot, in editing The Book of Fires of Marcus Grecus, noted that a number of its experiments were found also in the De mirabilibus mundi.[2361]
De secretis mulierum.
With the later editions of the Liber aggregationis and De mirabilibus mundi there was usually published a third treatise ascribed to Albertus Magnus which had already been printed separately, namely, The Secrets of Women. I am not quite sure whether this treatise was put on the Index Expurgatorius because it had become too popular, or whether its popularity was increased rather than diminished by this official censure. At any rate the number of extant manuscripts shows that it was well known before the Index was ever instituted. Possibly one reason for questioning the authenticity of the two treatises which we have just considered was the ill-repute into which they came in consequence of being so often bound with the De secretis mulierum. Also its history and the question of its genuineness or spuriousness may throw some light, if only by way of illustration and analogy, upon the same problem in their case. Moreover, if the De secretis mulierum is by Albert or one of his disciples, it affords some further illustrations of the belief in occult virtue and astrology of himself or his pupils; and if not, it at least shows what a great interest such doctrines had for a large number of readers during the centuries from the fourteenth to eighteenth inclusive. It is not, however, either a book of magic or an experimental book like the two treatises which we have just considered.
The problem of its authorship.
The Secrets of Women was printed before 1500[2362] and in all has appeared in about as many editions as the other two treatises. Choulant counted over thirty editions of each.[2363] The De secretis mulierum is found in several manuscripts, chiefly of the fourteenth century, in the medieval collection of Amplonius at Erfurt, and in numerous other manuscripts at Munich, Berlin, Wolfenbüttel, and Vienna.[2364] Apparently the treatise originated in Germany, whether by the hand of Albert or not, and remained a favorite there. A translation into German was made for the Count Palatine of the Rhine.[2365] Although sometimes no author is named in manuscripts of the De secretis mulierum, in the case of those of Amplonius of the fourteenth century one infers from Schum’s descriptions that the work is ascribed to Albertus Magnus and to no one else. Thus no support is given by these early manuscripts to the theory of Simlerus, Meyer, and Borgnet that the treatise should be attributed to Henry of Saxony, a disciple of Albert whose writings contain many excerpts from Albert’s, because in some old printed editions the work is assigned to him.[2366] This ascription to Henry of Saxony has already been well characterized by V. Rose in his Catalogue of the Latin manuscripts at Berlin as “a pure invention of the editor”[2367] of the printed edition of 1499, which the manuscripts clearly contradict. Thomas of Cantimpré, who devotes some chapters of his De natura rerum to gynecology has also been suggested as author of the De secretis mulierum, but for no further reason.[2368]
Its citation of Albert, commentary, opening.
Perhaps the best reason for doubting the authenticity of The Secrets of Women is that Albert seems to be cited in it, a point already noted by Albert’s biographer, Peter of Prussia, [2369] towards the close of the fifteenth century. It is, however, somewhat difficult to distinguish the text of the original treatise from that of a commentary upon it which both accompanies and envelopes it in both the manuscripts and printed editions. In this commentary Albert is often cited but apparently he also is cited in the text proper, from which, however, the commentary after a time ceases to be adequately distinguished in those copies which I have examined.[2370] Possibly this commentary is by Henry of Saxony or perhaps it is the commentary by Buridan mentioned in one of the manuscripts.[2371] It states that Albert composed the treatise at the request of a priest (sacerdos), and the text itself opens with a salutation “To his dearest friend and associate in Christ,” after which ensues a divergence, due no doubt to the carelessness of copyists, as to the name or initial letter of the cleric in question, as to his place of residence, and as to his ecclesiastical rank or position.[2372] But he appears to have been a clerk from Erfurt who was studying at Paris. The text is in the form of a letter to this clerk and the author states that it is written “in part in physical and in part in medical style.” He asks the clerk not to reveal it to any depraved person and promises to send him further writings, “when providence permitting I have toiled further in the art of medicine.”[2373] This fact that the De secretis mulierum is addressed to a clerk who seems to be studying at Paris suggests that in the fourteenth century bibliography of writings by Dominicans the title, Determinationes quarumdam questionum ad clerum Parisiensem, as well as another title, Secretum secretorum Alberti, which are ascribed to Albert, may refer to our treatise, although the exact title, De secretis mulierum, does not appear in the bibliography.
Nature of its contents.
The Secrets of Women scarcely deserved to be placed on the Index aside from the suggestiveness of its title and perhaps the fact that it had become too popular. Meyer, while regarding it as spurious, rightly remarked that it shared the common medical knowledge of the time and displayed a strong astrological superstition, but was neither immoral nor indecent.[2374] As a matter of fact, its astrology is little more extreme than what we have found in Albert’s undisputed works. The article upon him in the Histoire Littéraire de la France[2375] declared that The Secrets of Women was certainly not by him, but added that he makes very similar statements in his commentary on the fourth book of the Sentences, where he justifies such knowledge on the part of a priest as essential to his comprehension of what he is liable to be told in the confessional. This fits in nicely with the statement that Albert composed the De secretis mulierum at the request of a priest.
Medieval standards in such matters.