Satyriasis and priapism

Use in the book

The earliest significant pairing belongs to the treatment of sexual abstinence among causes of melancholy. Burton reports the belief that retained generative fluid could corrupt and emit harmful vapours to the heart and brain. Galen’s claim is qualified: the fluid is kept too long, and the change occurs in some people. Mercurialis is then cited for melancholy, priapism and satyriasis among the supposed consequences. The surrounding cases concern interruption or omission of intercourse, and Burton extends the account to monks, widows and unmarried women through further authorities. These are historically attributed causal explanations, not present medical guidance.

A different argumentative use appears in the survey of symptoms. Priapismus occurs among conditions reported alongside headache and epilepsy in Mercurialis’s cases. Burton uses such mixed lists to show the difficulty of assigning symptoms neatly to kinds. His continuation is an essential qualification: all the listed symptoms are not found in a single person; some belong to different people or different times. The list therefore cannot support a composite diagnosis made by collecting everything Burton names.

In the cure of love melancholy, the phrase “de Satyriasi & Priapismo” identifies subjects treated by medical writers. Burton has just named foods and plants thought to reduce sexual desire and told the story, attributed to Aelian, of Athenian women using an herb during the Thesmophoria. The chapter reference extends this bibliographic direction. It does not state that the festival participants suffered either named male condition. The very next paragraph allows a contrary regimen for those physically weakened and despairing, so the preceding discussion should not be flattened into a universal prescription.

Two earlier marginal citations already connect this medical vocabulary with anti-monastic accusations: the visibly abbreviated “cap. de Satyr. et Priapis.” and the reference “Mercurialis cap. de Priapismo.” Both are bibliographic appeals, not proof of the surrounding charges.

The later catalogue changes the terms’ rhetorical setting. In attacking compulsory religious celibacy, Burton places them among illnesses, sexual acts, moral accusations and crimes supposedly produced by rash vows. The medical names retain their distinct meanings, but the accumulated list serves his Protestant polemic. His citations of scandalous stories and his representation of defenders of vows are not independent proof of the accusations. He answers the position he attributes to those defenders with Paul’s preference for marriage over burning desire, then claims marriage as Christian liberty. That sequence explains why the terms occur here without adopting his causal indictment of religious communities.

Related entries

Venery: The broader historical discussion of sexual activity and abstinence.

Seed: Generative fluid and the retained-seed explanation.

Celibacy and vows: The religious-vow controversy that supplies the later polemical context.

Melancholy: The difficulty of arranging mixed symptoms.

Places to read

1. Subsection 4 Retention and Evacuation as Causes, and How They Act · paragraphs 11–13Abstinence and retained generative fluid in the attributed causal explanation; the qualification “in some parties” limits the claim, and the continuation extends the argument to monks, widows and unmarried women.
2. Subsection 4 Symptoms Arising From Education, Custom, Duration, Our Circumstances, Mingled With Other Diseases, Occurring in Fits, From Inclination, and So On · paragraphs 27–29Priapismus in the mixed-symptom catalogue; the surrounding argument resists rigid classification, and the final paragraph expressly denies that every listed symptom occurs in one person.
3. Subsection 4 Symptoms of Melancholy in Unmarried Women, Nuns and Widows · paragraphs 14–16The abbreviated medical citation in Burton note 4717 accompanies the polemic against enforced continence; the final couplet suspends the discussion.
4. Subsection 2 How Love Tyrannizes Over Human Beings. Love, or Heroical Melancholy: Its Definition and the Part Affected · paragraphs 33–35; note 8697The Mercurialis chapter citation is attached to another sexual-polemical catalogue; the adjoining material remains attributed report.
5. The Cure of Love Melancholy by Work, Diet, Medicine, Fasting and Other Means · paragraphs 30–32The chapter phrase “de Satyriasi & Priapismo” follows purported desire-reducing plants and the Thesmophoria story; the next paragraph makes an exception for people weakened and despairing.
6. Subsection 5 The Last and Best Cure for Love Melancholy Is to Let Lovers Have Their Desire · paragraphs 9–19The two conditions enter the anti-celibacy catalogue at Subsection 5 The Last and Best Cure for Love Melancholy Is to Let Lovers Have Their Desire · paragraph 11, whose note 11168 cites Mercurialis. The following scandal account has discrepant numbers in body and margin; Burton then represents Bellarmine’s opposing position, answers it with the Pauline marriage argument, and concludes with Christian liberty.

In this edition

“de Satyriasi & Priapismo” → “On Satyriasis and Priapism” is a phrase-level alignment: de supplies “On,” the conjunction supplies “and,” and the nouns name different conditions. “satyriasis, priapismus” → “satyriasis, priapism” modernizes the latter form while retaining the former. In the earlier mixed-symptom passage, “with head-ach, Epilepsie, Priapismus” becomes “with headache, epilepsy and priapism.” These choices preserve the list construction; they do not assert equivalence between the conditions or verify Burton’s historical causal claims. The editorial explanations make the semantic distinction explicit.

De satyriasi et priapismo

Printed “de Satyriasi & Priapismo” (Latin; phrase).

On excessive male sexual desire and persistent erection. De means on or concerning and governs the ablative forms Satyriasi and Priapismo, respectively naming desire and erection.

Here: A phrase naming medical chapters that Burton directs the reader to consult.

Context: Burton gives a bibliographic invitation after reporting herbs thought to lessen desire; he does not here diagnose the Athenian women with either condition.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: de Satyriasi & Priapismo

Modern rendering: On Satyriasis and Priapism

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The whole phrase is a chapter subject: de contributes On, & contributes and, and each noun supplies its own condition.

Further local use

Printed “Satyr. et Priapis.” (Latin; family).

Citation key: Satyriasis and priapism.

Here: The two conditions are abbreviated in a marginal medical-chapter citation beside Burton’s anti-monastic accusations.

Context: Burton supplies a bibliographic citation; invoking a medical chapter does not verify the surrounding allegations against monks or religious communities.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording and original alignment: cap. de Satyr. et Priapis.

Modern rendering: Chapter on satyriasis and priapism

Alignment scope: Equal-scope bibliographic phrase and supplied English rendering within the note

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

Alignment qualification: The supplied English note expands the printed abbreviations; the original abbreviations are retained visibly.

Modern container: note

Further local use

Printed “de Priapismo” (Latin; lemma).

Citation key: Priapism.

Here: Priapism names the subject of a marginal medical reference attached to a sexual-polemical catalogue.

Context: Burton supplies a bibliographic citation; invoking a medical chapter does not verify the surrounding allegations against monks or religious communities.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording and original alignment: Mercurialis cap. de Priapismo.

Modern rendering: Mercurialis, chapter on priapism

Alignment scope: Equal-scope bibliographic phrase and supplied English rendering within the note

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

Alignment qualification: The English counterpart is the supplied note translation, not a phrase in the paired modern body.

Modern container: note

Priapism

Printed “Priapismus” (Latin; lemma).

Priapism means a persistent erection, distinct from the amount or intensity of desire.

Here: The bodily condition is included in the historical retained-seed account beside, rather than as a synonym of, satyriasis.

Context: The cause is a report of inherited medical explanation, not an established causal claim of this lexicon.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Priapismus, Satyriasis

Modern rendering: priapism, satyriasis

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: Priapismus is normalized to priapism; satyriasis is its coordinated companion, not part of its definition.

Further local use

Printed “Priapismus” (Latin; lemma).

Citation key: Priapism.

Here: A condition appearing alongside others in Burton’s account of mixed symptoms.

Context: Burton cites Mercurialis’s cases, then asks how intermingled symptoms can be confined to a system; the next paragraph expressly denies that every symptom occurs in one person.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: with head-ach, Epilepsie, Priapismus

Modern rendering: with headache, epilepsy and priapism

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

Satyriasis

Printed “Satyriasis” (Latin; lemma).

Satyriasis is a historical term for excessive or uncontrolled male sexual desire.

Here: It is one of the conditions said by the cited medical authorities to follow retention of generative fluid.

Context: Burton reports Mercurialis and other authorities; Galen’s preceding claim is expressly restricted to some people and prolonged retention.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Priapismus, Satyriasis

Modern rendering: priapism, satyriasis

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: Satyriasis names desire; the other coordinated term names a bodily condition. The paired list does not identify them.

Satyriasis and priapism

Printed “satyriasis, priapismus” (Latin; family).

Two historical medical names, respectively excessive male desire and persistent erection.

Here: Their pairing now forms part of a polemical catalogue mixing diseases, sexual conduct, vices and crimes.

Context: Burton asserts that rash religious vows produce these evils; the claim belongs to his attack on compulsory celibacy and is not verified by the list itself.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: satyriasis, priapismus

Modern rendering: satyriasis, priapism

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.