Circe: Consisting of Ten Dialogues between Ulysses and several men transformed into beasts, satirically representing the various passions of mankind and the many infelicities of human life

by Giovanni Battista Gelli, Peter Kahn (Illustrator), Thomas Brown (Translator)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1744 edition. ...surprized, when I tell you, that my husoand was a professor of the first credit, with whom it was impossible to converse so much, without picking up a good deal of what is so easily learned. VI. I can tell you one thing which I per-r ceive he could never teach you. Hind. Pray what was that? VI. To overcome the itch of prattling, which is still so strong upon you, that though you could cooly reject the offer, you could not forbear being transported when you found the use of your tongue. those ancient sages the Gymnosophlfls, and thus among the Indians, the modern Bonxi, we are told, appear so much like ideots, when most abstracted, that it is not easy to distinguish the apparent from the real Philosopher. There was a book; in the sixteenth Century upon this subject, An Mulieres Jint Homines, which was answered by one Simon Gediccus, a Lutheran Divine of consummate gravity whereas it deserved to be put in no other light but what the Frenchman sets it, by translating the Thesis, Si Iti Femmeifqievt dtt Hommn. I 3 Hind. Hind. What I have to alledge then in Justin fication of my refusal is, that you men treat us as your slaves, or at least as your servants, not as you ought, like your equals pr companions. A thing so immoral, so monstrous, that I defy you to produce a parallel to it w Nature. Cast your eyes round the Animal World, and sliew me where the female is not the partner, not the slave to the Male; sharer of his pleasures, and fellow-sufferer in his troubles? Man is the single exception. fay Man, who from being a Lord, degenerates into a Tyrant, and as he finds himself superior to us in strength and courage, is ger nerous enough to take advantage of it. VI. What makes you declaim thus fu? riously? Hind. I telj you once more, because you use us...

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1549

Reviews

[S · Rating 3 out of 5]

An exhortation to use one’s full mental powers, which are presented as divinely bestowed & conducive to incomparable beauty. I think Gelli lacks modernity’s understanding of what animals (& at times humans) are capable of, but the spirit is there.

This book filled me with the notion that there is no pleasure more complex or more intense than that of the intellect — particularly contemplation of what lies within the divine spheres, which rotate above us according to the direction of the angels.

[Regine · Rating 2 out of 5]

A modern re-working of a 1702 translation of a 1549 satire based on a conceit abandoned by Plutarch. Dedicated to Cosimo de' Medici, Duke of Florence by shoemaker/man of letters Giovanni Batista Gelli. Ulysses tries unsuccessfully to persuade Circe's victims to return to being human, but from oyster to lion, they decline. Only the philosopher/elephant is convinced of the desirability of man's free will.