Geniture

Use in the book

Burton's self-description places Saturn as lord of his geniture and Mars as principal significator of his manners. These are distinct assignments. The ascendant and the two planets' favourable placements supply the compressed chart language, while the surrounding account concerns a scholar whose travels occur in maps and books. The passage gives an astrological self-portrait; it does not provide enough data here to reconstruct or independently verify the whole figure. Later in the preface, the fee Cardan supposedly allows for casting a nativity becomes the imagined subscription price for Burton's projected commonwealth. The transaction is part of the parody, and the particular fee is not specified.

Natal figures enter medical examples and predispositions. Leovitius offers a senator's fortunate significators as proof of astrological certainty in a story of exceptional health. Burton's catalogue of people susceptible to melancholy then includes those with the Moon, Saturn or Mercury adversely placed in their genitures, alongside climate, parentage, regimen and bodily constitution. The introductory list promises fuller treatment rather than a complete demonstration. The later celestial-causes section postpones the causes-or-signs dispute and insists on inclination without compulsion before reporting more forceful authorities. Paracelsus, for example, demands knowledge of the patient's particular geniture and scheme, even for toothache, and sometimes makes the constellation alone the cause of melancholy. That requirement is explicitly his. The accompanying Latin “nisi genesim sciverit” means unless he knows the nativity: the physician is the implied subject, and the birth configuration is the object of knowledge.

The subsequent “37. geniture” is Cardan's numbered example, invoked among cases supposed to confirm the rules. A geniture here can therefore be encountered as a written judgement in a collection as well as a celestial configuration. The following timing procedure directs significators in the natal chart towards specified positions or considers later planetary movement relative to it. The birth figure supplies a reference arrangement; it is not itself identical with every subsequent transit.

In the symptoms chapter, planets act as “Lords of the geniture,” but the claim that all symptoms arise from the stars is immediately disputed. The Saturn example is conditional: if Saturn predominates in the nativity and causes a melancholic constitution, the attributed character follows. Other planetary descriptions succeed it, then the account turns to more immediate bodily causes. Thus the natal classification is embedded in an argument with dissent and multiple causal levels.

The book also tests the value of natal study. The attack on “Genethliacal studies” belongs to a broad satirical inventory of allegedly futile disciplines, including medicine and philology. In the treatment discussion, Burton criticizes claims that a particular healer is predestined for a particular patient and that each geniture must govern preparation and treatment. Yet among recreations he permits a melancholy person to cast a nativity “in some cases,” as an absorbing task alongside difficult calculations and reading. The qualified permission concerns occupation of attention; it does not promise that a horoscope will reveal a reliable future.

The love discussion gives a different numbered example: Cardan's eighth geniture, introduced as his account of his own persistent sexual thoughts. Burton praises his candour while reproducing his planetary explanation. Elsewhere, natal rulers are one of several reported explanations of attraction: physicians invoke temperament, astrologers planetary relations, Cicogna spirits, and most outward charms. The Latin “genesi” in the later rule means at birth; its specified positions are said to make someone more inclined to sexual relations with males. The ensuing claim of confirmation by long practice and experience is expressly Cardan's, as Ptolemy's commentator. The marriage discussion reads genitures for spouses, timing and mutual affection, then warns that these predictions are conjectures rather than compulsory decrees. It also distinguishes judgements from birth charts from answers to particular questions. A natal reading and a question-based judgement should not be collapsed simply because both are astrological.

Ordinary uses set the boundary. Spirits are said by some to watch over people “from their nativity,” meaning from birth, and to protect or punish them as they see fit. The nurse discussion begins “From a childs Nativity,” likewise from the child's birth, before advancing historical claims about milk and constitution. Neither phrase means from the child's chart. The marginal “à nativitate,” from birth, gives the same temporal starting point beside Democritus's reported speech: “Totus à nativitate morbus est,” from birth he is wholly disease. Wholly belongs to the satirical characterization of the human subject, not to the meaning of birth. The word's temporal sense remains available even in a book densely populated with astrological explanations.

Related entries

Astrology; Astrological aspects; Astrological significators; Election; Jovial and martial; Seed; Nurse; Maternal impressions

Places to read

1. · paragraph 2–4Burton’s natal self-portrait
2. · paragraph 19–23from birth in the marginal characterization beside Democritus’s reported speech
3. in the prefacethe astrologer’s unspecified fee in the commonwealth parody
4. · paragraph 5–7the natal example of exceptional health
5. · paragraph 23–25genitures among alleged predispositions
6. · paragraph 30–32nativity meaning birth itself, with attributed protection or punishment
7. · paragraph 1–24Paracelsus’s requirement and its Latin genesim, numbered genitures, calculations from the birth figure and the surrounding claimed proofs
8. sequence label 146a child’s nativity in the nurse discussion
9. · paragraph 19–24the attack on genethliacal studies
10. first and second occurrences, thennatal rulers, Saturnian character, dissent and bodily causes
11. · paragraph 4–10chart-based medical matching and Burton’s criticism
12. · paragraph 9–12casting a nativity as a qualified recreation
13. · paragraph 6–10natal rulers among several explanations of attraction, with most favouring outward charms
14. · paragraph 1–11Cardan’s eighth geniture, the genesi birth-time construction, the comparative inclination rule and Cardan’s claim of empirical confirmation
15. marriage readings, questions and limits on prediction

In this edition

“my geniture” becomes “my birth chart,” and “casting a Nativity” becomes “casting a birth horoscope.” The same explanatory phrase recurs in the permission to “cast a Nativity.” “genitures” becomes “birth charts” in the predisposition list; “Genethliacal studies” becomes “studies of birth horoscopes.” These expansions state the relevant kind of birth-related activity rather than introducing a second technical system.

“Lords of the geniture” becomes “rulers of the nativity”; “his nativity” becomes “a person's nativity” in the conditional Saturn example. Cardan's “37. geniture” becomes “thirty-seventh nativity,” whereas his “eighth Geniture or example” becomes “eighth birth chart, or example.” The numbered items are textual case presentations. Finally, “from their nativity” becomes “from birth,” and “From a childs Nativity” becomes “From a child's birth.” Exact original forms and both ordinary and technical senses remain retrievable; the supplied rendering does not establish the historical accuracy of any forecast.

The compact Latin birth words require their own constructions. “nativitate” is the ablative of nativitas after à, from; the marginal sentence supplies he in English for the human subject. “genesim” and “genesi” are forms of the Greek-derived Latin noun genesis: the first is the nativity known by the physician, while the second gives the birth-time setting for Venus’s position. In the full rule, more inclined comes from “Aptiores,” and to him makes Saturn explicit as the complement of opposition. These English additions and the claim of empirical confirmation remain distinct from the meaning of the birth noun.

cast a nativity · casting a Nativity

Printed “casting a Nativity” (English; phrase).

Citation convention

Calculating a birth horoscope.

Context: Cardan’s alleged astrologer fee supplies the price comparison in a fictional commonwealth offer.

Source: original body

Source wording: for casting a Nativity

cast a nativity · cast a Nativity

Printed “cast a Nativity” (English; phrase).

Printed form, Source wording: cast a Nativity

Citation convention

Construct a birth horoscope as a possible absorbing exercise.

Context: Burton permits it only in some cases; permission as recreation is not confirmation of predictive truth.

Source: original body

genesis · genesim

Printed “genesim” (Latin; Latin noun lemma, Greek-derived; accusative singular form). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

A nativity or birth configuration; here the object of the physician’s required knowledge.

Context: The marginal Paracelsian claim makes knowledge of the nativity necessary even for the smallest medical act. The English body expands the demand into understanding cause or cure, even of toothache, and attributes it explicitly to Paracelsus.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording, Original wording: nisi genesim sciverit, ne tantillum poterit

Modern rendering: unless he knows the nativity, he will not be able to do even the smallest thing

Alignment convention

Alignment convention

Edition note: checked against the supplied editorial translation within the Burton-labelled note, not the modern body

Supply or redistribution: He makes the physician subject explicit in both clauses; the supplies the English article before nativity.; To do is supplied as the complement of will be able; not … even the smallest thing unfolds the emphatic ne tantillum.

genesis · genesi

Printed “genesi” (Latin; Latin noun lemma, Greek-derived; ablative singular form). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Birth or nativity; here the time at which specified planetary positions are considered.

Context: The quoted rule describes greater inclination to sexual relations with males under the specified positions. Cardan, identified as Ptolemy’s commentator, owns the claim that the rules are confirmed by long practice and experience; this is a reported comparative claim, not an independent finding. Sexual relations with males does not name a modern identity category.

Source: original body

Source wording: quorum genesi Venus est in signo masculino

Original wording: Aptiores ad masculinam venerem sunt quorum genesi Venus est in signo masculino, & in Saturni finibus aut oppositione

Modern rendering: Those at whose birth Venus is in a masculine sign and in Saturn’s terms or in opposition to him are more inclined to sexual relations with males

Word and construction: The whole rule is aligned; genesi corresponds to birth, not to the sex-related predicate or the comparative qualification.

Alignment convention

Supply or redistribution: Those makes explicit the antecedent of quorum; at expresses the local birth-time construction of genesi.; A supplies the article before masculine sign; to him supplies Saturn as the complement of opposition.; More inclined renders the comparative aptiores, and the conjunction-and/or structure is retained.

genethliacal

Printed “Genethliacal” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Pertaining to judgements based on birth horoscopes; the adjective here qualifies studies.

Context: Part of the broad rhetorical attack on unprofitable learning.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: those Genethliacal studies

Modern rendering: those studies of birth horoscopes

Word and construction: The adjective Genethliacal corresponds to of birth horoscopes; studies is a separate noun in the full phrase, retained as studies in the modern wording.

Alignment convention

geniture · local use 1

Printed “geniture” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

The celestial configuration at birth or its chart; here Burton’s own natal figure.

Context: First-person astrological self-description; Saturn’s ruling role differs from Mars’s significatorship.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: Saturn was Lord of my geniture

Modern rendering: Saturn ruled my birth chart

Word and construction: Geniture corresponds to birth chart. In the complete clause, was Lord of becomes the verb ruled; that ruling relation is not part of the noun’s definition.

Alignment convention

geniture · local use 2

Printed “geniture” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

A birth chart; here the figure consulted in Leovitius’s alleged example of exceptional health.

Context: The claimed confirmation belongs to Leovitius’s story; Burton permits only rare exceptions before returning to vulnerability.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: the significators in his geniture fortunate

Modern rendering: the significators in his birth chart were fortunate

Alignment convention

Alignment convention

Supply or redistribution: Were makes the elliptical predicate fortunate explicit; the original his remains his.

geniture · genitures · local use 1

Printed “genitures” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Birth charts or celestial configurations at birth; here figures with allegedly adverse planetary placements.

Context: One group in Burton’s list of predispositions; modern recasts the possessed chart construction.

Source: original body

Source wording: the Moone, Saturne, Mercury misaffected in their genitures

Original wording: Such as have the Moone, Saturne, Mercury misaffected in their genitures

Modern rendering: Those whose birth charts show the Moon, Saturn or Mercury adversely placed

Word and construction: The original people who have adverse planetary placements in their charts become people whose charts show those placements; the chart is made grammatical subject of show.

Alignment convention

Supply or redistribution: Show supplies the new verb in the rearranged construction, and or explicitly coordinates the printed list of the Moon, Saturn and Mercury.; Their is redistributed as the relative possessive whose in the expanded alignment.

geniture · local use 3

Printed “geniture” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

A natal configuration presented as a written judgement or case; here the thirty-seventh numbered example in Cardan’s collection.

Context: Cited as an example claimed to support the rules; not the writer’s thirty-seventh birth.

Source: original body

Source wording: his 37. geniture

geniture · Geniture

Printed “Geniture” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

A birth chart presented as a numbered case or written judgement; here Cardan’s eighth example contains his own self-description.

Context: Burton introduces Cardan’s first-person account; his explicit praise of its candour precedes it.

Source: original body

Source wording: his eighth Geniture or example

geniture · genitures · local use 2

Printed “genitures” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Birth charts consulted for marriage judgements.

Context: Distinguished from answers to questions earlier in the sentence; next units limit predictive authority.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: both in mens and womens genitures

Modern rendering: in the birth charts of both men and women

Alignment convention

Alignment convention

Supply or redistribution: The supplies an article before birth charts; the coordinated possessives mens and womens become the of-phrase of both men and women.

geniture and scheme

Printed “geniture and Scheme” (English; phrase).

Citation convention

Birth configuration and its astrological chart.

Context: Paracelsus reportedly makes knowledge of these necessary for understanding cause or cure.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: the peculiar geniture and Scheme of the party affected

Modern rendering: the particular birth configuration and astrological chart of the patient

Alignment convention

Alignment convention

Supply or redistribution: Astrological clarifies the contextual sense of Scheme; birth configuration renders geniture, while particular renders peculiar.

lord of the geniture

Printed “Lords of the geniture” (English; phrase).

Printed form, Source wording: Lords of the geniture

Citation convention

Planets held to rule the natal figure.

Context: First printed190; the following unit records a dissent from attributing all symptoms to stars.

Source: original body

Locator qualification: Do not remove bracketed or repeated-page qualifier.

nativitas

Printed “nativitate” (Latin; Latin noun lemma; ablative singular form). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Birth, the starting point of a life; ablative singular after à, from.

Context: The margin beside Democritus’s reported speech portrays a human being as wholly disease from birth. The body links infancy, adult misconduct and old age; this is a moral-satirical description, not a clinical diagnosis or natal chart.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording, Original wording: Totus à nativitate morbus est

Modern rendering: From birth he is wholly disease

Alignment convention

Alignment convention

Edition note: checked against the supplied editorial translation within the Burton-labelled note, not the modern body

Supply or redistribution: He makes the human subject explicit; wholly renders totus, while from birth renders à nativitate.; The prepositional phrase is moved to the front of the English sentence.

nativity · local use 1

Printed “nativity” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Birth itself, the beginning of a person’s life.

Context: Others suppose these spirits are appointed by higher powers to watch over people from birth and protect or punish them as they see fit. The starting point is birth itself.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: to keep men from their nativity

Modern rendering: to watch over people from birth

Alignment convention

Alignment convention

Supply or redistribution: The original possessive their is implicit in the modern from birth, whose people have already been named.

nativity · Nativity

Printed “Nativity” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Birth, opening the period of infancy.

Context: Ordinary temporal use in the historical wet-nursing account; source printed142, sequence146.

Source: original body

Locator qualification: Preserve sequence and printed-number distinction exactly.

Source wording: From a childs Nativity

nativity · local use 2

Printed “nativity” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

The astrological configuration at a person’s birth; here the setting for Saturn’s conditional predominance.

Context: If and the ensuing causal condition govern the predicted traits.

Source: original body

Locator qualification: Do not remove bracketed or repeated-page qualifier.

Source wording, Original wording: if Saturn be predominant in his nativity

Modern rendering: if Saturn predominates in a person’s nativity

Alignment convention

Alignment convention

Supply or redistribution: A person’s makes explicit the referent of the original his; be predominant becomes predominates.

scheme of each geniture

Printed “scheme of each geniture” (English; phrase).

Citation convention

A chart of the heavens at each birth; the phrase here names what the reported medical-astrological requirement says must be inspected.

Context: Paracelsus’s requirement is criticized as too dogmatic in this passage.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: the scheme of each geniture inspected

Modern rendering: each birth chart must be examined

Alignment convention

Alignment convention

Supply or redistribution: Must be supplies finite wording for inspected under the preceding will have, preserving Paracelsus’s asserted requirement.; Scheme of each geniture is reorganized as each birth chart, with the chart noun incorporating scheme.