Exquisite

Use in the book

The account of Rome’s devastation makes the painful sense unmistakable. Senators and cardinals are put to exquisite torments to force disclosure of hidden money; the description moves from ruined buildings to tortured people and displaced citizens. The adjective intensifies suffering, not aesthetic pleasure. The earlier account of Spanish violence in the Americas has “stupend & exquisite torments,” rendered as appalling, elaborate tortures. That passage retains an attribution qualified by “if we may believe,” and its reported totals are not established historical measurements.

Exactness matters in the warning against practising medicine from books. After a reported mistake about a dose, “without exquisite knowledge” marks the dangerous lack of judgment, not the possession of an attractive book. Burton then adds a case he says he knows himself, of a friend experimenting with hellebore. Simples, in substance, already explains that shared example. Elsewhere exquisite physicians are exceptionally accomplished, yet cannot identify the chief affected organ in the reported hypochondriacal consultation. Skill is praised without being made infallible.

The same accomplishment can belong to a philosopher, herbalists or a method of healing. The learned-ruler catalogue calls Evax an exquisite philosopher, though its historical and legendary figures must not be treated as a verified roll. Public gardens teach the knowledge of plants needed for an exquisite manner of curing; the continuation selects only a few of the many simples described by exquisite herbalists. In the associated Latin, exquisite regulation belongs to a way of living, while choice remedies can be the object of excessive admiration for foreign medicines. The criticism later permits cultivating imported plants locally, rather than rejecting all learning about them.

The adjective also describes fine responsiveness rather than acquired expertise. In the hearing account, the inner air is compared to an exquisite organ, a finely sensitive instrument within the drumhead-like membrane. Touch is exquisite in human beings even though Burton ranks it lowest among the senses: he immediately preserves its necessity and pleasure. These are distinctions within the book’s inherited account of sensation, not modern anatomical identifications.

Books and images offer the more familiar favourable senses. Codronchus’s books and Montaltus’s work are called exquisite, meaning excellent. Phidias’s works, pictures of sports and fine pieces in collections exemplify artistic excellence. A description of the world on Charlemagne’s silver table is an engraved representation; the exquisite descriptions in the next paragraph are geographical writings to read. Tables, table · local use 3, already explains the first object. Praise of an artwork may belong to a disputed response: the Zeuxis painting admired as exquisite fails to please the countryman, and the supplied note does not establish Burton’s altered anecdote or attribution.

Refinement does not settle the moral judgment. Exquisite sauces accompany an eater’s expensive, unsatisfied fussiness. Exquisite music can adorn the extravagant suitor’s pursuit, yet Burton approves the decent amusements of English hospitality. His prodigal-son comparison puts music before the sorrowful reckoning, although the supplied note observes that Luke’s music celebrates the son’s return. Likewise, exquisite beauties appear among proposed sensory remedies for grief before Burton endorses Cicero’s objection to that “physick.” The surrounding turn of argument, not the adjective alone, determines praise or blame.

Aretino’s Lucretia also describes the merchant’s exquisite phrases, comparing his verbal effort to a conjurer’s powerful words. The I and me are hers, not Burton’s. In the Latin margin, exquisitis modifies dictis, speeches, while mihi identifies their recipient. Another margin’s superlative exquisitissimus qualifies Simierus’s skill in enticements; the skill does not certify honest intentions. The fruit catalogue has a different construction: exquisitas gives choice, exoticas gives exotic, and fruges supplies fruits.

Related entries

Painful: both suffering and the older sense painstaking.

Art and artificial: skill, method and deliberately made works.

Curiosity, curious · curious crosses: elaborate workmanship and the modern exquisite translating curious.

Hypochondria, Hypocondriacall melancholy; Simples, in substance: disputed diagnosis and the dangerous book-based experiment.

Non naturals, if not too far gone: the condition limiting the reported sufficiency of regimen.

Tables, table · local use 3: the engraved world representation.

Fustian and bombast, Bombast; pretentious practitioners: criticism of pretentious physicians and far-fetched remedies.

Courtship and wooing, Woo; wooe; woed; woing: the merchant’s pursuit in Lucretia’s account.

Places to read

1. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 28–30, 1elaborate cruelty in the qualified report of Spanish violence.
2. Subsection 4. Mental Impairment, Frenzy, Madness, Hydrophobia, Lycanthropy, St Vitus’s Dance and Ecstasy · paragraph 34Codronchus’s excellent books.
3. Subsection 6. The Sensitive Soul · paragraphs 10–15hearing’s sensitive instrument and finely developed touch.
4. Subsection 13. Love of Gambling and the Like, and Excessive Pleasures, as Causes · paragraphs 25–27; note 3194exquisite music before a sorrowful reckoning in Burton’s rearrangement of the prodigal-son story.
5. Subsection 15 Love of Learning or Excessive Study With a Digression on the Misery of Scholars and Why the Muses Are Melancholy · paragraphs 36–39Evax as an accomplished philosopher in the learned-ruler catalogue.
6. Subsection 7. A Collection of Other Events That Cause Melancholy: The Death of Friends, Losses, and So On · paragraphs 46–49; Subsection 7. A Collection of Other Events That Cause Melancholy: The Death of Friends, Losses, and So On · paragraph 48agonising torture in the account of Rome’s devastation.
7. Subsection 7. A Collection of Other Events That Cause Melancholy: The Death of Friends, Losses, and So On · paragraphs 31–33exquisite sauces, expensive refinement and an unsatisfied appetite.
8. Subsection 2 Symptoms of Windy Hypochondriacal Melancholy · paragraphs 10–12accomplished physicians and unresolved diagnosis.
9. Subsection 2. Concerning the Patient · paragraphs 38–42; Subsection 2. Concerning the Patient · paragraph 41exact knowledge and the danger of practising from books.
10. Section 2. Member 1. Subsection 1. Diet Corrected in the Choice of Food · paragraphs 11–14; note 5122the carefully regulated way of living and its medical qualifications.
11. Member 4 Exercise of Body and Mind Regulated · paragraphs 31–43; Member 4 Exercise of Body and Mind Regulated · paragraphs 3–6excellent images and descriptions, with the engraved world representation distinguished from geographical writings.
12. Subsection 4 Cheerfulness, Merry Company, and Pleasing Sights as Remedies · paragraphs 36–39exquisite beauties among proposed sensory remedies, followed by moral objection.
13. Subsection 4 Cheerfulness, Merry Company, and Pleasing Sights as Remedies · paragraphs 13–14; note 6349approved hospitality, exquisite music in the body and exquisite dishes in the margin.
14. Subsection 2 Simple Remedies Suited to Melancholy Against Imported Simples · paragraphs 37–44; Subsection 3 Alteratives Herbs and Other Plant Remedies · paragraphs 1–3; note 7485; note 7494imported remedies, gardens and accomplished healing, with the qualifying continuation.
15. Subsection 3 Preparatives and Purgatives · paragraph 42Montaltus’s excellent medical work.
16. Member 2. Subsection 1. Causes of Heroic Love: Bodily Temperament, Plentiful Diet, Idleness, Place, Climate, and So Forth · paragraphs 46–49; Persistence and Opportunity of Time and Place; Meetings, Conversation, Singing, Dancing, Music, Amorous Tales and Sights, Kissing, Familiarity, Tokens, Gifts, Bribes, Promises, Declarations, Tears, and So On · paragraphs 1–2; Note 9613; Persistence and Opportunity of Time and Place; Meetings, Conversation, Singing, Dancing, Music, Amorous Tales and Sights, Kissing, Familiarity, Tokens, Gifts, Bribes, Promises, Declarations, Tears, and So On · paragraphs 28–30; note 9654choice fruits, skilled enticements and a literary speaker’s exquisite phrases.
17. Member 4 Subsection 1 Symptoms or Signs of Love Melancholy in Body and Mind Good and Bad Signs and So Forth · paragraphs 64–67; note 10101different responses to a fine painting and an unresolved attribution.

In this edition

“Exquisite torments” becomes “agonising torture”; “exquisite knowledge” becomes “exact knowledge”. Agonising conveys severity without a favourable overtone, while exact conveys the precision required by the medical warning. In “stupend & exquisite torments,” the modern “appalling, elaborate tortures” assigns appalling to stupend and elaborate to exquisite. The two torture passages therefore retain different local emphases.

The sensory passages give “exquisite organ” as “finely sensitive instrument” and “This sense is exquisite in men” as “This sense is finely developed in humans”. The adjective is accomplished of practitioners and their method, excellent of the commended books, and often remains exquisite of music and images. Conversely, the modern exquisite pictures renders curious pictures, already explained in Curiosity, curious · curious crosses; it is not another original occurrence of exquisite.

Original margins require their own alignments. The banquet margin’s “varias & exquisitas dapes” becomes “varied, exquisite dishes,” whereas the body calls the music exquisite: the adjective must not be transferred from one noun to the other. “Sine exquisita vivendi ratione” becomes “without a carefully regulated way of living”; “ad exquisitam curandi rationem,” “for an accomplished method of healing.” The prepositions supply without and for, and the nouns and gerunds supply the way of living and method of healing. These English translations are editorial parts of the notes, separate from the original quoted Latin.

exquisite: torment

Extreme or acutely painful when describing torment; the phrase about the Americas is rendered as appalling, elaborate torture, emphasizing its dreadful elaboration rather than beauty.

Grammar: Attributive adjective modifying plural torments, in one occurrence coordinated with stupend.

Original text: “stupend & exquisite torments”. In the modern column: “appalling, elaborate tortures”. The adjective belongs to Burton’s denunciation of Spanish violence in the Americas. If we may believe qualifies the Las Casas attribution; the competing totals are transmitted claims, not verified counts. The later condemnation is limited to unjust wars. Stupend gives appalling, exquisite elaborate, torments tortures. The modern emphasizes devised elaboration, not approval.

Original text: “exquisite torments”. In the modern column: “agonising torture”. Senators and cardinals are tortured to disclose hidden money in the account of Rome’s devastation. Burton’s historical narrative of the 1527 sack, not a favourable judgment of refinement; sufferers are the grammatical objects of the coercion. Exquisite gives agonising; torments becomes collective torture. The purpose of disclosure belongs to the following clause, not the adjective.

exquisite: exact or accomplished

Exact or highly developed of knowledge; accomplished or exceptionally skilled of a practitioner or a method of working.

Grammar: Attributive adjective; most exquisite is a superlative expression in the account of physicians whose skill does not remove uncertainty.

Original text: “an exquisite Philosopher”. In the modern column: “an accomplished philosopher”. Evax is commended for philosophical accomplishment in a catalogue of learned rulers. The catalogue mixes historical, legendary and ambiguously identified figures; Evax belongs to the lapidary tradition. Exquisite gives accomplished; Philosopher supplies philosopher.

Original text: “the most exquisite Physicians cannot determine of the part affected”. In the modern column: “the most accomplished physicians cannot determine which part is affected”. Exceptional professional skill does not resolve the reported localization dispute. Crato’s reported claim concerns this ambiguous hypochondriacal condition, not every medical judgment. The next unit also denies universal fear and sorrow. Most exquisite gives most accomplished; cannot determines the failure to identify an organ and must not be dropped.

Original text: “without exquisite knowledge, to work out of books is most dangerous”. In the modern column: “it is extremely dangerous to practise from books without exact knowledge”. The warning requires knowledge precise enough to judge treatment rather than merely copy a recipe. The preceding reported case involves a mistaken dose; Burton then adds his own claimed knowledge of an unnamed friend’s dangerous hellebore experiment. Exquisite gives exact, knowledge stays knowledge; without retains the condition under which book-based practice is condemned.

Original text: “that exquisite manner of curing”. In the modern column: “that accomplished method of healing”. Knowledge of medicinal plants is said to be necessary to accomplished practice. Fuchs’s judgment continues the preceding praise of public gardens as places of instruction. The craftsman/tool analogy specifies the practitioner’s needed knowledge. Exquisite gives accomplished; manner of curing becomes method of healing.

Original text: “many exquisite herbalists”. In the modern column: “many accomplished herbalists”. The writers on simples are praised as accomplished plant specialists. Only a few of the many simples are selected for melancholy; the claim about their powers belongs to historical medical authorities. Exquisite gives accomplished; many and herbalists remain separate.

exquisite: keenly developed

Finely sensitive or well developed in the performance of a sensory function.

Grammar: Attributive adjective in exquisite organ; predicate adjective in This sense is exquisite in men.

Original text: “as an exquisite organ”. In the modern column: “as a finely sensitive instrument”. The internal air in the hearing account is likened to a delicately functioning instrument. The preceding unit identifies air as hearing’s medium and ear as organ. This is Burton’s inherited drumhead/drumstick analogy, not present physiology. Exquisite gives finely sensitive; organ means instrument. The adjective does not by itself identify a modern anatomical structure.

Original text: “This sense is exquisite in men”. In the modern column: “This sense is finely developed in humans”. Touch is said to be finely developed in humans despite its low place in the hierarchy of senses. Least noble does not mean dispensable: Burton expressly says touch is as necessary and pleasurable as the other sense under comparison. Exquisite gives finely developed; this sense refers to touch; men becomes humans.

exquisite: excellent or finely wrought

Excellent, carefully worked, refined or especially pleasing of books, art, descriptions, music, food, beauty or expressive language. The quality of an object does not settle whether its use is praised or blamed.

Grammar: Attributive and predicate adjective; it qualifies singular and plural objects without changing form.

Original text: “exquisite cunning”. In the modern column: “exquisite skill”. The adjective praises skilled construction of cities now imagined in ruins. Conditional viewing from Taygetus sets past splendour against present desolation, under a Gerbelius-associated report. Exquisite is retained; cunning gives skill, not deceit.

Original text: “two exquisite books”. In the modern column: “two excellent books”. Codronchus’s two books on the preceding disease are commended. The surrounding historical hydrophobia cures and claims are not endorsed by praise of the books. Exquisite gives excellent; two and books are separate.

Original text: “exquisite musick”. In the modern column: “exquisite music”. Pleasurable music belongs to the initial splendour of Burton’s prodigal comparison. An accompanying note says Luke’s music celebrates the son’s return, not his initial wasteful period; the discrepancy remains. Exquisite is retained and musick modernized to music.

Original text: “exquisite sauces”. In the modern column: “exquisite sauce”. Refined sauces exemplify the extravagant eater’s exacting demands. The luxury does not satisfy: he is seldom pleased, unlike an ordinary stomach. The adjective’s quality is separate from criticism of consumption. The adjective is retained; the plural becomes singular in this or that... sauce.

Original text: “so exquisite and pleasing to be beheld”. In the modern column: “so exquisite and pleasing to behold”. The excellence of Phidias’s works supports an attributed account of aesthetic consolation. An accompanying note identifies Dio Chrysostom, not John, and notes Burton broadens the example of Zeus at Olympia. Relief is an attributed literary illustration. Exquisite remains a quality of the works; pleasing to behold is a distinct coordinated claim.

Original text: “such exquisite peeces”. In the modern column: “exquisite representations”. Fine pieces in collections depict people, birds and animals. A catalogue of absorbing sights; the precise individual works are not securely identified. Exquisite is retained; peeces becomes representations, with the demonstrative recast in the wider modern list.

Original text: “exquisite pictures”. In the modern column: “exquisite pictures”. Illustrations enhance books on practical disciplines and pastimes. An expansive recommendation of intellectual diversion; the named authors do not identify every edition. The adjective and noun are retained exactly.

Original text: “an exquisite description of the whole world”. In the modern column: “an exquisite representation of the whole world”. The world on Charlemagne’s third silver table is a visual representation, not only prose description. The story is attributed to Platina and remains uncollated; the contemporary map comparison carries the recreational argument. Exquisite is retained; description becomes representation in the engraved-map setting.

Original text: “those exquisite descriptions”. In the modern column: “those exquisite descriptions”. The adjective praises geographical writings and their pleasure for the reader. The catalogue’s Leander Albertus and Leo Africanus are joined in the modern text; the full bibliography is not established. The phrase is retained; these descriptions are read, unlike the preceding engraved world image.

Original text: “exquisite beauties”. In the modern column: “exquisite beauties”. Exceptional physical beauty is listed among proposed sensory remedies for grief. Burton reports a view associated with Epicurus, then endorses Cicero’s criticism while acknowledging qualified supporters. The adjective is retained; beauties names the beautiful people or forms, not the abstract adjective’s meaning.

Original text: “exquisite musick”. In the modern column: “exquisite music”. Fine music accompanies the reported English banquet. Burton chooses a favourable reading of Giovio’s national generalization, then approves decent amusements; not every pleasure is condemned. Exquisite remains exquisite and musick music; the Latin margin instead attaches its cognate adjective to dishes.

Original text: “his exquisite work”. In the modern column: “his excellent work”. Montaltus’s medical work receives praise before its recipe is reproduced. Successful use is Montaltus’s reported experience, not Burton’s own; the praise does not establish a remedy’s safety. Exquisite gives excellent; work remains work.

Original text: “ought that is exquisite”. In the modern column: “anything exquisite”. Aesthetic excellence becomes an object of desire alongside harmony, eloquence and skilled art. Burton’s causal claim about desire and preference for personal beauty remains the account’s, not a guarantee of everyone’s response. Ought means anything, and exquisite is retained; a wide range of attractive qualities is meant.

Original text: “exquisite musick”. In the modern column: “exquisite music”. Lucretia’s merchant suitor courts her with elaborate sensual entertainment. The I belongs to Aretino’s literary Lucretia introduced in 125-28, not to Burton. Exquisite is retained; musick becomes music.

Original text: “exquisite phrases”. In the modern column: “exquisite phrases”. The suitor’s carefully contrived eloquence is compared to a conjurer’s powerful words. Lucretia’s retrospective first-person account compares verbal persuasion and military stratagem, not the narrator’s own courtship. Both words are retained; exquisite describes the quality or artifice of the phrases, not the entire strategy of seduction.

Original text: “that exquisite Picture of Helena”. In the modern column: “Zeuxis’s exquisite painting of Helen”. The fine painting becomes a comparison for different viewers’ judgments of beauty. The countryman does not see its beauty; Burton’s lovesick spectator responds. An accompanying note leaves the Plutarch attribution and altered anecdote unresolved. Exquisite remains exquisite; Picture gives painting, and the modern moves the maker’s name before it.

exquisitus

Choice, carefully worked or regulated, refined, accomplished or exceptionally skilled, according to the modified noun. Latin cognates are distinguished from the English adjective and from editorial uses of exquisite translating other Latin words.

Grammar: Latin first/second-declension adjective: exquisita is ablative feminine singular with ratione or accusative neuter plural with remedia; exquisitas is accusative feminine plural with dapes or fruges; exquisitam is accusative feminine singular with rationem; exquisitis is ablative neuter plural with dictis. Exquisitissimus is a nominative masculine singular superlative describing the man Simierus.

Original margin: “sine exquisita vivendi ratione”. Supplied note translation or expansion: “without a carefully regulated way of living”. The original margin demands a carefully regulated regimen. Solenander’s necessity claim is followed by Aretaeus’s separate conditional sufficiency claim, limited to illness not too far advanced. Exquisita supplies carefully regulated, ratione way and vivendi of living; sine supplies without.

Original margin: “varias & exquisitas dapes”. Supplied note translation or expansion: “varied, exquisite dishes”. The Latin margin describes the banquet’s food, not its music. Giovio-associated national generalization; the body redistributes qualities and calls the music exquisite instead. Exquisitas modifies dapes: exquisite dishes; varias separately gives varied. Music appears as a different noun later in the quotation.

Original margin: “exquisita remedia”. Supplied note translation or expansion: “choice remedies”. Choice imported remedies are sought by the physicians criticized for neglecting familiar local plants. Fuchs-associated criticism of physicians’ attitudes. The margin says a countrywoman often treats more safely, whereas the English body says more good; later transplantation remains allowed. Exquisita gives choice and remedia remedies; remoteness is supplied by the surrounding country names, not the adjective alone.

Original margin: “ad exquisitam curandi rationem”. Supplied note translation or expansion: “for an accomplished method of healing”. The margin supplies a Latin counterpart to the body’s accomplished manner of curing. Attributed to Fuchs, with knowledge of plants as the required skill. The editorial English translation is separate from the quoted margin. Exquisitam gives accomplished, rationem method, curandi of healing; ad supplies for.

Original text: “exquisitas & exoticas fruges”. In the modern column: “choice and exotic fruits”. Selected or choice fruit belongs to a polemical list of luxurious supposed aphrodisiacs. The preceding and following units condemn gluttonous luxury; nearly everything physicians prescribe is what these people prize, not a new medical recommendation. Exquisitas gives choice, exoticas exotic and fruges fruits. Choice does not mean aphrodisiac by itself.

Original margin: “illecebris exquisitissimus”. Supplied note translation or expansion: “exquisitely skilled in enticements”. Simierus is commended for exceptional skill in enticement in the original marginal citation. The body treats him as a benchmark surpassed by deceitful lovers; the Camden reference remains uncollated. The superlative exquisitissimus gives exquisitely skilled; illecebris gives in enticements. The whole phrase is not the adjective alone.

Original margin: “exquisitis mihi dictis”. Supplied note translation or expansion: “exquisite speeches to me”. Elaborate persuasive speeches are addressed to Lucretia in the cited narration. The recipient and first-person pronoun are the literary speaker’s, not Burton’s; the comparison is with a conjurer’s language. Exquisitis modifies dictis: exquisite speeches; mihi is to me. The Latin uses an ablative phrase with the understood comparison to usus est.