70 Ulisse Aldrovandi

individuals at the same time and in fixed years, because of the greater or lesser vigor of their temperament; therefore, it is necessary to establish these ages according to a specific count of years.

They extend Infancy from the very beginning of birth up to the fourteenth year; this stage is further subdivided into "infancy," lasting seven years, and "true childhood," which reaches to the fourteenth year. The second age, from the fourteenth to the thirty-fourth year, is called "adolescence." This period, however, undergoes three divisions: the first, reaching the twenty-first year, is called true adolescence; the second, reaching the twenty-eighth year, is puberty; and the third is youth.

The third part of the primary division is called the "age of consistency," or "manhood," which begins at the completion of youth and reaches the forty-ninth year. Finally, that which is drawn out from the forty-ninth year through the remainder of life is called "old age," which further encompasses a first and second senescence.

The first stage ends at the sixty-third year, and the second extends to the eighty-first year. From this we can gather that a human being hastens toward the end of life through these different ages as if by so many steps on a ladder. Consequently, any year in which the aforementioned ages conclude can be called "climacteric," since in Greek *klimax* signifies a ladder and *klimaktēr* a step of a ladder.

Age should therefore be established like a ladder complete with its own steps. The first step is "infancy," so named because a person cannot yet speak (*fari*) at that age; and since this stage ends in the seventh year, that constitutes the first climacteric year. The second step follows, namely "childhood" (*pueritia*), named for its purity, ending in the fourteenth year, the second climacteric. Then follows "adolescence," matured for procreation, reaching the third climacteric year according to some; according to others, it is extended to the twenty-eighth year under the name "puberty," from *pube* (the private parts), which then begin to be covered with downy hair. The remaining age up to the thirty-fifth year—likewise a climacteric—is called "youth" (*iuventus*), from *iuvando* (helping), for then a person is situated at the peak of their growth. Next, the span of age reaching the forty-ninth year—also a climacteric—is called "manhood" (*virilitas*), because greater strength (*vis*) exists in that age than in others.

To this is added "old age," the boundary of the sixth age (speaking here of the first and vigorous stage of old age); this reaches the sixty-third climacteric year. The span of life that remains is called "decrepitude," since a person in that stage can no longer make even a rattling sound (*crepitum*), and it ends in the final climacteric year, namely the eighty-first. Nevertheless, the sixty-third year of life is established as the true climacteric.

Just as there is a climacteric number to which we ascend gradually by degrees, as if by certain steps, such is the number eighty-one, which results from nine nines. Finally, it should be noted that those who imbue their minds less with malice are said to live longer; for those whose innate heat produces a "hot" wit are usually of shorter life. Conversely, those with a simpler mind are longer-lived, for they also possess stronger limbs and a more robust body.

TEMPERAMENT

Since man is said to have attained a moderate temperament, he is called by authors the measure and standard of all other living creatures; this is especially so since Galen wrote that man is the most temperate not only of animals and plants, but of all other things.

However, we cannot understand or attain the exact temperament of a man, because Galen excellently taught that a man enjoys different temperaments at different ages.

Indeed, the first age is said to be hot and moist; the second turns toward heat and dryness; the third recedes from heat and acquires greater dryness; and the final age is considered the coldest of all. Again, let us add from the mind of Galen that we cannot