DiotimosReading Desk

Insipid and powerless material

fatuae; fatuas; fatuus; invalidas; invalidus; Fatuus

In the sweet-substance passage fatuae describes things deprived of sweetness and value: insipid is the relevant sense, not foolish.

From the book

Nine Books on the Nature of Things

Attributed to Paracelsus · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Meaning

In the sweet-substance passage fatuae describes things deprived of sweetness and value: insipid is the relevant sense, not foolish. Book V pairs a related form with powerless when describing materials that lose virtue in death. The vocabulary links sensory loss with loss of efficacy. It does not establish that every mortified thing is worthless, since the same opening argument immediately gives the opposite class.

Places to read

  1. Book 5 · Death · Passage 1Latin“fatuas & invalidas”