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Book-Ends

The Role of the Eunuch and the Hermaphrodite in Nicolas Venette’s Tableau de L’amour Considéré dans L’estat du Mariage

McMaster University, jrush{at}mcmaster.ca

In his Tableau de l’amour considéré dans l’estat du mariage Nicolas Venette devotes the last section of his medical text to questions of sexual dysfunction or sexual malformation and the socio-legal implications that ensued for the afflicted. Like book-ends, the bodies of the eunuch and the hermaphrodite display the visible signs of sexual deformity yet, in Venette’s view, these deformities, based largely on external and arbitrary signs, can be deceptive and should not prevent those who wish to marry or to take holy orders to do so. Rather than exclude from social discourse the sexually deficient, the non-productive couple and the impotent in general, Venette, through the spectacular plight of the eunuch and the hermaphrodite, makes a valiant attempt to moderate the powerful voices of church and state and bring into the social fold not only the severely deformed but all who suffer from sexual dysfunction and impotence.

Key Words: church • deformed • marriage • medicine • sexual dysfunction

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