EROTICA & SEXOLOGY

including rare books from the collection of G. Legman

[AFANASYEV, Aleksander F.]. STORIES FROM THE FOLKLORE OF RUSSIA. Done into English by the Translator of The Book of Exposition in the Science of Coition, The Old Man Young Again, and Other Charming Works Ejusdem Farinae. Paris: Charles Carrington,  1897. 8vo, xix, 265pp, color frontispiece and 6 color plates by Wely, misc. b&w  text illus. by G. Dola and Wely. Early 20th c. half emerald morocco over green cloth, raised bands, gilt lettered compartment, teg, spine sunned to brown, mild sunning to boards, lt rubbing, original wrappers preserved, occasional spots to gutters, otherwise fine very good binding indeed. $400. ¶ First Edition in English of this classic compilation of Russian/Cossack erotic folk tales, originally published in Geneva, c.1872 as Russikya zavetniya skazki (Russian Secret Tales) by Aleksandr N. Afanasyev and translated into French by Isidor Liseux in 1891, the edition which Carrington used for translation. Printed by Charles Hérissey. Scarce in the marketplace. Straight, Erotica Bibliophile, Carrington Checklist 262. Legman, Horn Book, pp.475-6.

Ami de Martial, Une. [Eloi Johanneau]. EPIGRAMMES CONTRE MARTIAL, Ou Les Mille et Une Droleries, Sottises et Platitudes de Ses Traducteurs, Ainsi Que les Castrations Qu’ils Lui Ont Fait Subir, Mises en Parallele Entre Elles et Avec le Texte. Paris: Alexandre Johanneau, 1834. 8vo, 157pp. Quarter calf over boards, scattered foxing, a few ff toned, otherwise very good. $225. ¶ First Edition. The copy of G. Legman with his dated signature and bibliographical note identifying the author, the French literateur (1770-1851) and friend of Mérimée known for his commentaries on Rabelais and Montaigne. The publisher was his brother. Only three copies in OCLC; one in KVK. Barbier II, 141.

ANDREA DE NERCIAT, (André-Robert). LE DIABLE AU CORPS. Oeuvre Posthume de Trés Recommandable Docteur Cazzoné (Andrea De Nerciat) Membre Extraordinaire de la Joyeuse Faculté Phallo-Coïro-Pygo-Glottomique. Genéve [Brussels]: n.p. [Vital Puissant], 1786 [ 1872]. 3 vols, 12mo, viii, 194, 4 engravings, 226, 4 engravings, 210, 4 engravings. Half blue morocco over marbled boards, gilt lettered spine, raised bands, teg, very good. $1200. ¶ A stunning association copy, signed by the previous owner, the renowned scholar of erotica, G. Legman, on ffep verso to volume one, with bibliographical notes in his hand. The 12 engravings were executed after designs by Felicien Rops. Pia 317-318. Perceau 3-9.

(Anonymous). THE MODERN EVELINE Or the Adventures of a Young Lady of Quality Who Was Never Found Out. Paris: Printed for Distribution Amongst Private Subscribers, 1904. 2 vols, 8vo, 322, 222pp, 10 b&w explicit plates. Red cloth, fine in very good binding. $225. ¶ First American Edition. Turn of the 20th century erotic adaptation by notorious publisher Charles Carrington of a ca.1840 galante novel, Evelina, that, according to Mendes, was explicitly sexed-up by one of Carrington’s staff hacks; most definitely not by John S. Farmer, as some have surmised. The edition under notice, containing the full text to the Carrington three-volume edition, was issued in the early 1930s by the Miller Brothers who were part of New York City’s clandestine erotica scene along with Sam Roth, Esar Levine, and Ben Rebhuhn. The illustrations to this edition possess a stylish vintage charm. Kinsey Library 823.7 E93 1900. Cf. Mendes 161. Cf. Straight, Erotica Bibliophile Carrington Checklist 168.

APOLLINAIRE, Guillaume [Pascal Pia]. CORTEGE PRIAPIQUE. La Havane [Paris]: Au Cabinet de Muses [Bonnel & Picart], 1925. Sm 4to, (4), (20), (2)pp, unsewn. Wrappers printed in red and black, toning to wrapper margins, otherwise fine in very good custom slipcase with hand-lettered title label. $1200. ¶ First Edition, limited to 123 copies on Impériales de Japon, this copy being no.73, a marvelous Association Copy, that of G. Legman (without signature), a close friend of Pia. The Preface, signed Léger Alype (Pascal Pia), discusses the origins of these erotic poems written by Apollinaire in 1914, published here for the first time; a grand charade as the poems are a fine pastiche of Apollinaire, written by his good friend, the merry prankster of erotica, Pia himself! Published clandestinely by René Bonnel and René Picart. Scarce. Dutel II, 1302. Pia. 263-264. Cf. Private Case 109. 

ARETINO, Pietro. L’OEUVRE DU DIVIN ARETIN. Deuxième Partie. Les Ragionamenti… Essai de Bibliographie Arétinesque par Guillaume Apollinaire. Paris: Bibliothèque des Curieux, 1923. 8vo, (4), xxix, 268, (6, ads)pp, frontisportrait. Orig. tan printed wrappers, printed in red & black. Front hinge barely starting, spine lightly chipped, otherwise fine & unopened. $50.

¶ Second volume (sold separately) of the first French edition of Aretino’s collected works, edited and annoted by Apollinaire. This volume contains several of Aretino’s most caustic Ragionamenti (or Arguments), which are satirical and are directed against their male friends: L’Éducation de la Pippa, Les Roueries des Hommes, and La Ruffianerie. The satires are in the form of dialogues between a young, inexperienced low woman of Rome and an older woman; they discuss the various occupations left for women of that city.
Pietro Aretino (1492-1556) was banished from his home in Arezzo when he was very young for composing a satirical sonnet against indulgences. He then wandered around Italy until he reached Rome, where his talents commended him to the papal court. A series of obscene sonnets offended the papacy, and Aretino left for Milan, where Giovanni de’Medici introduced him to Francis I of France. On the death of Giovanni he left for Venice, where he spent his remaining days writing comedies and licentious dialogues. His pride grew to such proportions that he called himself the “divine,” and Ariosto called him the “scourge of princes.” This volume was published in a series “Les Maitres de L’Amour,” edited by Apollinaire and Villeneuve. Rose II, p.378.

ARETINO, Pietro. THE WORKS OF ARETINO. Translated into English from the Original Italian, with a Critical Essay and Biographical Essay by Samuel Putnam. Illustrations by Marquis Von Byros. Chicago: Pascal Covici, 1926. 2 vols, 8vo, 280; 302pp, tipped-in plates by Von Bayros. Quarter linen, paper boards, paper title labels, moderate wear and soiling, corner of vol.1 broken, front hinge vol. 2 starting, otherwise good. $50.

¶ First Edition, limited to 1250 numbered copies, of Samuel Putnam’s magnificent English translation of Aretino’s Ragio­namenti, Sonnets, Courtezans, Letters, and of the de Sanctis biography of Aretino, together with Putnam’s critical and biographical essays.

B…, Nadine. LES 32 ESCALES DE L’AMOUR. Confidences d’une Hôtesse de l’Air. Paris: Aux Editions du Trefle D’Or, 1966. 8vo, unpaginated, 32 b&w illus. Printed stiffcard, dust jacket, very good. $20. ¶ First Edition. The adventures in love of an airline stewardess; her lay-overs in cities throughout the world. The illustrations are soft­core/gallant, and the very attractive color dust jacket by Jef de Wulf depicting a flight attendant in short, skintight uniform, skirt hiked up provocatively to expose a full stockinged leg was apparently influenced by the work of American fetish illustrators, Bill Ward, Gene Bilbrew and Eric Stanton. Scarce.

BATACCHI, [Luigi]. NOUVELLES DE BATACCHI. Littéralment Traduites Pour la Première Fois. [Première and] Deuxième Série. Paris: Isidore Liseux, 1880-1882. 2 vols, petit 4to, viii, (discontin. pagin.); 215, (1)pp. Early 20th C. half emerald crushed morocco over green marbled boards, teg, spine mildly sunned, mild wear, otherwise near fine. $300. ¶ First Edition of the first literal (unexpurgated) translation into French (by Alcide Bonneau) of the erotic verse of Luigi Batacchi (1748-1802), limited to 225 copies, this being copy 203, numbered and initialed in ink by publisher Isidore Liseux. The copy of G. Legman, with his dated signature. Beautifully printed by Charles Unsinger and Paul Schmidt. Handsomely bound by Canape-Belz. Pia 916-919. Vicaire IV, pp336-337.

BATUT, Guy de la. L’ANTHOLOGIE LIBERTINE ou la Fleur Française de la Satire Galante. Recueil des plus piquantes êpigrammes relatives a l’amour… Préface de Paul Reboux. Paris: Jean Fort, (1926). 8vo, 237pp, frontis. & 8 plates. Orig. printed wrappers, yellow glassine wrappers, light wear to extremities, sm. tear to front wrapper, tear to title page (not affecting text), small paper label on glassine covering up price on wrapper, very good, partly unopened. $60. ¶ Only Edition of this collection of poems and epigrams from the 15th through 19th centuries. Not in Rose or la Léonina. NUC cites only a copy on microfiche.

(Bavent). SUMMERS, Montague (trans. & ed.). THE CONFESSIONS OF MADELEINE BAVENT. Now for the First Time Translated from the French of 1652 with  Introduction, Notes and Biblioigraphy by… London: Fortune Press,                                           [1933]. 8vo, lxxv, 159, (1)pp, frontispiece, 1 plate. Black buckram cloth, gilt lettered, lt rubbing, offsets to endpapers, bookseller’s label, otherwise internally clean, a very good copy. $750. ¶ First Edition in English of the confession of the 17th century nun who was seduced by, and subjected to the will of, priests who made the Marquis de Sade seem like Casper Milquetoast by comparison.

¶ “Throughout the whole history of witchcraft there is no history so hideous as that of Madeleine Bavant, Mathurin Picard, and Thomas Boulle. Nowhere have I read so hideous a confession. The details are so utterly abominable that even the soul of a priest steeped in the fires of the confessional, whom no human aberration can shock or surprise, shudders and sickens at the dark mass of turpitudes which are as the stench and vomit of the pit of hell…The details are known from the confession which she wrote in prison…” (Summers, The Geography of Witchcraft, London, 1927). ¶ Only 1200 copies of this volume were printed, and in 1934 the publisher, R.A. Caton, was prosecuted for obscene libel and unsold copies of the book were ordered destoyed. “Caton seems to have complied with the destruction order since the book is quite scarce”(d’Arch Smith, R.A. Caton and The Fortune Press). d’Arch Smith, Bibliog. of Montague Summers B27. d’Arch Smith, R.A. Caton and the Fortune Press 56.

[BERNARD, J.-Fréd.]. GAZETTE DE CYTHERE, Ou Histoire Sécrete de Madame La Comtesse du Barry. Londres: P.G. Wauckner, 1775. 8vo, 104pp. Original card in later marbled wrappers, untrimmed, a bit of soiling to margins, otherwise very good. $175. ¶ Second Edition, originally issued in the prior year. Author J.-Fred. Bernard was a librarian in Amsterdam, and given the provocative nature of this intimate view of Marie-Jeanne Bécu, Le Comtesse du Barry, he was fortunate to reside outside of France and beyond reach of Louis XV’s henchmen. Gay-Lemonnyer II, 395. Barbier II, 524.

[BERRY, André]. ROMANCE DE LA DAME INTERDITE Par un Trouvère du XX Siècle qui tait son nom. Bois de V. Le Campion. (Chartres: Lainé et Tantet, 1936). Large 12mo, 41, (5)pp, woodcut vignette, headpieces. Printed flapped card wrappers, partially unopened, near fine. $45. ¶ Limited Edition of 400 copies sur papier vélin aussedat, this being copy 101.

BLOCH, Dr. Iwan. ETHNOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL STUDIES OF THE SEX LIFE OF ENGLAND Illustrated as Revealed in its Erotic and Obscene Literature and Art with Nine Private Cabinets of Illustrations by the Greatest English Masters of Erotic Art. Translated and Edited by Richard Deniston. New York: Falstaff Press, Inc., 1934. 8vo, 434pp. Quarter velin, lettered and decorated in gilt, white moire cloth boards illustrated in gilt. Spine, top & right edges darkened, very light soiling, otherwise very good. $30. ¶ First Edition in English of Bloch’s Englishe Sittengeschichte, originally published in three volumes in 1901-03. Bloch was a close friend of Henry Spenser Ashby, the compiler of the classic 19th-century bibliography of erotica, who gave the famed German sexologist access to his collection of English erotica and the freedom to paraphrase much of what was contained in Ashby’s work. Most of what we know about Ashby is due to Bloch’s biographical notes in the present volume, which  is an abridgement of the original German text. Limited edition of 3000, press-numbered 2642. Legman pp. 16-17.

[BLOCH, Dr. Iwan]. Eugene Dühren DER MARQUIS DE SADE UND SEINE ZEIT. Ein Beitrag zur Kultur- und Sittengeschichte des 18. Jahrhunderts. Mit besonderer Beziehung auf die Lehre Psychopathis Sexualis. Dritte, vollständig durchgesehene und bedeutend vermehrte Auflage. Berlin: H. Barsdorf, 1901. 8vo, x, 537, (1) as adv. pp. Contemporary half morocco-grained calf over marbled boards, occasional foxing, some rubbing and wear to extremities, bookplate, otherwise very good. $40. ¶ “Third, Complete, Approved and Meaningfully Enlarged Edition,” of Bloch’s massive study of the Marquis de Sade, his works, and the sexual mores of the 18th-century, originally published in 1899. Bilder-Lexicon Sexualwissenschaft V, p.91. Hayn-Gotendorf IX, 135.

BONALD, [Louis Gabriel Ambroise] de. DU DIVORCE, Considéré au XIXè Siècle relativement à l’Etat Public de Société. Paris: Adrien Le Clere, 1805. 8vo, (3), 306pp. Old marbled boards backed in green vellum, morocco lettering piece, speckled edges. Spine worn, joints tender, incidental mild foxing, a good, clean copy.  $200. ¶ Second edition. This study, one of the principal works on marriage and divorce, considers the subject historically, legally, and philosophically. The author (1754-1840) was famous for having predicted in 1796 the return of the Bourbons, though he did not specify when. His first book was, as a consequence, suppressed in 1796; he returned to France for Napoleon’s coronation and rose to a position of considerable political power as a minister of state in the 1820’s. His politics were most conservative; he opposed freedom of the press and chaired the commission of censorship. Not in Marke or Quérard. No edition in NUC.

[BONNEFONS Père, Jean]. THE PLEAS­URES OF COITION; Or, The Nightly Sports of Venus: A Poem. Being a Translation of the Pervigilium Veneris, of the Celebrated Bonefonius. With some other pieces. Amor Omnia Vincit. London: Printed for E[dmund] Curll at the Dial and Bible…, 1721. 8vo, 56pp, engraved frontispiece, headpieces. 19 century full calf, gilt lettering to green morocco spine label, aeg, raised bands, gilt orn. compartments, French fillets, dentelles, gilt tooled edges, soiling to h-t, offset to t-p, mild toning, corner to h-t restored, otherwise very good in like binding with a bit of rubbing, sunning. $1500. ¶ First Edition in English of Bonnefons’(1554-1614) Pleasures, originally written in Latin in 1575. Not on Straus’ handlist, though at the entry for Jan. 31, 1721 he lists Ten New Poems: viz, the contents of the volume under notice, here with the addition of two other verses. That entry is likely based upon one of Curll’s typically unreliable advertisements (“…he rarely advertised a particular book in the same way for more than a very few weeks”) and not an actual book; Straus admits to possible “optimistic inaccuracy” in his compilation. Includes the advertised verse The Power of Musick by Mr. Parnell (here On The Death of Mr. Viner In Ireland) of which Straus wryly notes “It might seem odd to find Archdeacon Parnell in this gallery, but he was conveniently dead.” ¶ Edmund “The Unspeakable” Curll was almost single-handedly responsible for the passage of England’s obscene libel laws. Oft-imprisoned (initially for issuing Venus In The Cloister in 1724), he was the king of London’s Grub Street, the center of 18th century Britain’s populist tabloid press, and the most scandalous, outrageous publisher of his time.  For all his activity as a publisher of erotica, his infamy primarily rests upon his being the pre-eminent satirist of the illustrious personages of his age, most notably as Alexander Pope’s arch-nemesis - Pope lambastes Curll in The Dunciad. Not in the standard references though Rose lists a second edition of the same year at 3640; a third edition was issued in 1746. Only six copies in OCLC; no copies in Bodleian Library. Straus p.266.

BONNETAIN, Paul. CHARLOT  S’AMUSE. Edition Augmentée d’une pièce relative au procès jugé par la Cour d’assises de Paris le 27 décembre 1884, et d’un avis de l’auteur. Bruxelles: Henry Kistemaeckers, 1887. 8vo, iv, (2), 348pp. Original printed wrappers, some soiling, mild foxing, otherwise a good copy. $200. ¶ Later printing of the 1884 Edition Augmentée of Bonnetain’s “celebrated and epic masterbation novel” (Kearney), “a  romance of masturbation, gross but exceedingly well and even powerfully written” (Bibliotheca Arcana), originally published in 1882 and an immediate scandal upon its release: Bonnetain was indicted under Article 28, l’outrage aux bonnes moeurs, of France’s massive 1881-82 recodification of its laws governing the Press. He was, however, acquitted of the charge of obscenity by a jury. Scarce in all 19th century editions. Cf. Kearney, Private Case 267, 268; Rose 570; Bibliotheca Arcana 398; Kearney, History of Erotic Literature, p.141; Craig, Banned Books of England, p.184. Cf. Talvart & Place 1B. 

BONNETAIN, Paul. CHARLOT  S’AMUSE. Edition Augmentée d’une pièce relative au procès jugé par la Cour d’assises de Paris le 27 décembre 1884, et d’un avis de l’auteur. Bruxelles: Henry Kistemaeckers, 1887. 8vo, iv, (2), 348pp. Quarter morocco-grained calf over patterned boards, gilt lettered, ornamented and decorated spine, original wrappers preserved, a very good copy $350. ¶ A Signed and Inscribed copy of a later printing of the Edition Augmentée of Bonnetain’s “celebrated and epic masturbation novel” (Kearney), “a  romance of masterbation, gross but exceedingly well and even powerfully written” (Bibliotheca Arcana), originally published in 1882 and an immediate scandal upon its release: Bonnetain was indicted under Article 28, l’outrage aux bonnes moeurs, of France’s massive 1881-82 recodification of its laws governing the Press. He was, however, acquitted of the charge of obscenity by a jury. Quite rare in all early editions; signed copies are exceedingly scarce. Cf. Kearney, Private Case 267, 268. Cf. Rose 570. Cf. Bibliotheca Arcana 398. Cf. Kearney, History of Erotic Literature, p.141. CF. Craig, Banned Books of England, p.184. Cf. Talvart & Place 1B. 

BRANDAN, Saint. LES VOYAGES MERVEILLEUX DE SAINT BRANDAN. A La Recherche du Paradis Terrestrre Légende en Vers du XII Siècle. Publée D’Apres le Manuscrit de Musée Britannique. Avec Introduction par Francisque-Michel. Paris: A. Claudin, 1878. 8vo, xxv, 94, (2)pp, dec. inits. in red and black. Original printed flapped wrappers, reinforced at spine, some edgewear to wrappers, otherwise internally fine save for 2ff with spots to fore edge; in very good wrappers. $200. ¶ First Edition thus, issued in “tiré a petit nombre,” and beautifully printed by Motteroz

BURR, Timothy. BISBA. Illustrated by E. Florenz Gabriel. Trenton: Hercules Publ., 1965. 4to, xxiii, 452pp. Photo-illus. cloth, dust jacket, bump at top edge upper board, splotchy stains at fore-edge book block, otherwise very good in like dj. $50. ¶ First Edition of one of the strangest, most curious volumes - the Burr Investigative System of Breast Analysis, BISBA - “Baring the breast’s intriguing mysteries from its influence (on man, mind, and history) to its inspection, analysis, identification, rating, and interpretation.” In short, why and how women’s breasts reveal their character. A volume bizarre enough to be included in master conjurer and deistic sleight-of-hand artist Ricky Jay’s personal collection of the strange and curious; he mentions the book on p.182 of the collected edition of Jay’s Journal of Anomalies.

BUSCH, Wilhelm. DER HEILIGE ANTONIUS VON PADUA Lahr: Schauenburg, [n.d., ca, 1910]. 8vo, 71, (1)pp., b&w text illus. throughout. Yellow illus. wrappers, lt soiling, sm loss at spine foot, otherwise very good. $30. ¶ 17 & 18 auflage.

CABANES, Doctor [Augustin]. THE SECRET CABINET OF HISTORY Peeped Into by a Doctor. Translated by W.C. Costello and Preceded by a Letter of M. Victorian Sardou,  Member of the French Academy. First Series. Paris: Charles Carrington, 1897. 8vo, x, 239, vii (index), [7 catalogue]pp. Blue cloth, gilt lettered, boards stamped with ruled borders and decorative motif, t.e.g. Light soiling of cloth, spine starting, otherwise very good. $60. ¶ First Edition, printed on Van Gelder handmade paper. A handsome volume from the infamous Charles Carrington (psuedonym of Paul Ferdinando) who moved from London to Paris to Brussells, usually one step ahead of the authorities (in short, wherever it was safest to print his books). Curiously, it was books like the present volume, in which members of the French aristocracy had their intimate medical histories “peeped into,” rather than his  pornographic and flagellation-themed books, that got Carrington in trouble with French authorities. ¶ The second series of the present work was issued in 1898 under the title Curious Bypaths of History. The complete French edition of Le Cabinet Secret de l’Histoire Entr’ouvert par un Medecin was originally issued in four series at Paris 1895-1900. Rare. Legman pp.67-68.

CAMBON, Viviane (pseud.?). LES INASS­OUVIES. [The Insatiables]. Paris: C.E.P.E., (1961). 8vo, 253pp. Yellow wrappers printed in black, dust wrapper illus. in b&w, foxing to top edge, the mildest of wear, otherwise fine in near fine dj.  $35. ¶ Second Edition, originally issued in 1958 under the title Si vous la rencontrez. An unrecorded edition: Bibliothéque National notes the first and a third edition of 1964 at FRBNF32939054 and  FRBNF32939053 respectively. Cambon also wrote La Vallée du damné (1964).

CASTI, L’Abbé [Giovanni Battista]. NOUVELLES GALANTES DE L’ABBE CASTI. Traduites pour la Première Fois. L’Espouse consue. La Bulle d’Alexandre IV. La Loterie. L’Antechrist. L’Habit ne fait pas le moine. Le Vernis. Le Miracle. La Conversion. La Gageure.   Paris: Isidore Liseux, 1880. Large 16mo, 23, 20, 23, 28, 22, 16, 15, 11, 14pp, separate titlepages. Contemporary half cloth over marbled boards, morocco spine label, original wrappers preserved, an occasional margin note or underline, otherwise very good. $400. ¶ First Literal Translation into French, limited to 225 copies, this being copy 188, hand-numbered and initialed by Liseux. ¶ Casti (1724-1803), a priest from Montefiascone, left the priesthood to pursue a life of pleasuren and adventure. “His facile approach to writing - plebian in its facility - was always his best quality or worst defect. His Novelle  [Amatory Tales] were widely read; in them, in concentrated form, is all that is most shameless in the Italian novelle writers and in the Contes of La Fontaine (Donadoni, Hist. of Italian Literature). Ripely translated by Alcide Bonneau, and handsomely printed by Charles Unsinger. Four copies located in KVK, OCLC. Rare. Gay-Lemonnyer III, pp422-423.

CLELAND, John. MEMOIRS OF FANNY HILL. Paris: Obelisk Press, 1950. 16mo, 223pp. Wrappers, wrap-around dust jacket, text toned throughout, dj spine sunned & worn, very good. $200. ¶ First Obelisk Edition, the copy of novelist Irving Wallace, with his dated (1946!) signature. This was Maurice Girodias’ resurrection of his father’s famed imprint, three years before Girodias founded Olympia Press and issued the present work with identical collation as Traveller’s Companion no. 17 in 1956. Released just after Girodias lost control of Editions du Chène to Hachette; the copyright notice reads: “Copyright 1950 by Société d’Exploitation des Editions du Chêne.” Why Wallace has dated the book four years prior to its publication date remains a mystery; either Girodias post-dated the book or Wallace pre-dated it. 

CROMBIE, John. SPREADING THE WORD. [N.p.]: (Kickshaws), 1987. Sq 12mo, (22)pp. White wrappers, lettered in black, mild soiling and wear at wrappers, light creases along spine, a very good copy.   $75. ¶ First Edition, limited to 115 numbered copies, printed on heavy Arches paper. Erotically charged words and phrases spread throughout these pages. 

DAVENPORT, John. CURIOSITATES EROTICAE PHYSIOLOGIAE; or, Tabooed Subjects Freely Treated. In Six Essays, viz.: 1. Generation. 2. Chastity and Modesty. 3. Marriage. 4. Circumcision. 5. Eunuchism. 6. Hermaphrodism. And Followed by a Closing Essay On Death. London: Privately Printed, 1875. 4to, xviii, 216pp. Half roan gilt lettered, dark green marbled boards, woven paper, chip at spine head, light wear, p.xv with tear, otherwise very good. $150. ¶ American Edition, probably from J. Bouton of New York ca.1880-85 who bought the remaining sheets from the original publisher, J.C. Hotten. Companion volume to Davenport’s Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs (1869). Cf. Ashby I, p.174 & Private Case 535. Kieffer Cat. 986 records a New York 1993 edition.

DAVENPORT, John (1789-1877). APHRO­DISIACS AND ANTI-APHRO­DISIACS. Three Essays on the Powers of Reproduction; With Some Account of the Judicial "Congress" As Practised in France During the Seventeenth Century. London: Privately Printed, 1869 [? 1890]. 4to. pp. xii+154pp, frontispiece &7 plates bound-in at rear. Quarter leather with marbled boards, bookplate, mod. wear to extremities, upper board detached, otherwise nearly very good.   $125. ¶ A good reprint of this classic work on aphrodisiacs by the pioneer British sexologist. In appearance it is very similar to the original edition, which, although prepared for publication by John Camden Hotten in 1869, as stated on the titlepage, did not actually appear until 1873, after his death. The early history of this work is recounted in Ashbee1, pp.82-89. This work is filled with factual and anecdotal sexual lore and its publication may be said to represent the beginning of the modern, scientific approach to sexuality in the English-speaking world. The copy of famed silent screen scenarist and Paramount staff writer, Clara Beranger, with her bookplate.

(DeHartington, Michael - pseud. of Timothy d’Arch Smith). THE BOOK CATALOGUES OF MICHAEL DeHARTINGTON 1972-1974. A Facsimile Edition with an Introduction by Timothy D’Arch Smith. (North Pomfret, VT): Asphodel Editions, 1998. 10 parts 4to, xi, (1), apprx. 120pp. Quarter cloth over beige boards, stamped vignette. Fine copy with orig. prospectus laid-in, and 24mo reprint of Catalogue No.3 housed in pocket at rear (as issued). $90. ¶ First Edition, limited to 300 numbered copies. Ten DeHartington catalogues are reproduced; No.3 “English Homosexual Poetry of the Nineteenth & Twentieth Centuries” as a 24-page pamphlet housed in a pocket at the rear. 

[DELEPIERRE, Octave]. UN POINT CURIEUX DES MOEURS PRIVEES DE LA GRECE par O.D. Suivi D’Une Notice Bibliographico-Littéraire. Athènes[Bruxelles]: [Vital-Puissant], 1871. 16mo, 35, (1)pp, dec. initis. 20th C. marbled wrappers, hand-inked lettering, mild toning, otherwise near fine. $350. ¶ The copy of G. Legman, with a penciled bibliographical note in his distinctive hand to inside upper wrapper. ¶ A quite rare survey of homosexuality in ancient Greece with a bibliographical-literary essay on Alcibiade. Originally published at Paris by J. Gay, 1861. Gay-Lemonnyer III, 1286. Cf. Kearney, Bibliog. of Jules & Jean Gay 122. Cf. Drujon, p.12.

[DIDEROT, Denis]. LES BIJOUX INDISCRETS. A Monomotapa [Paris]: n.p. [Cazin], 1771  [1785]. 2 vols, 12mo, (4), iii, (1), 207; (6), 239pp, t-p vignettes. Contemp. full mottled calf, gilt dec. spines, corner damage, sm losses to spine extremes, general wear and rubbing, otherwise internally very good in good binding. $850. ¶ First Cazin edition, with wonderful Association, being the copy of the great erotica scholar, G. Legman. Diderot’s erotic classic of loquacious labia and a stinging satire of Louis XV, Madame de Pompadour, Richelieu, and Marie Leczinska, originally published in 1748. Diderot’s first full-length novel “written at a time when he was under considerable financial pressure from his mistress…[and] stung by her challenge that he was unable to write stories in the manner of Crébillon fils…which Diderot had dismissed as being easy to emulate, he dashed off Les Bijoux Indiscrets in a little over two weeks” (Kearney).  Gay asserts the actual publication date of this “1771” edition to be 1785; Cazinophile lists the edition under notice, and another edition dated “1785” that was actually issued in 1789. Curiously, lacks the called for engravings which do not appear to have been excised. Un Cazinophile [Charles BRISSART-BINET], Cazin sa Vie et ses Editions, p.53; cf. p.120. Gay-Lemonnyer I, 401-402. Cf. Galitzin 513; Barbier I, 424; Kearney, History of Erotic Literature, pp.62-65.

DILLON, Michael. SELF, A Study in Ethics and Endocrinology. London: Willian Heinemann, 1946. 12mo, (6), 128pp. Cloth, dust jacket. Fine. $150. ¶ First Edition of the first book about sex change, by the first person to change sex from female to male. Self: a Study... is part scientific and part philosophical, arguing for greater tolerance for those who experienced sexual anomalies (the term ‘transsexual’ had not yet been coined). It preempted later research into the biological root of transsexualism and the idea that the body must be reconstructed in accord with the mind.

DINAUX, Arthur. SOCIETES BADINES BACHIQUES CHANTANTES ET LITTERAIRES. Leur Histoire et leurs Travaux. Paris: Bachelin-Deflorenne, 1867. 2 vols, 8vo, vi, 459; 409pp. Orig. printed wrappers, head & foot of the spine chipped, some foxing & scattered notes throughtout the text, good set. $275. ¶ First Edition, edited by Gustave Brunet. 

(DROZ, Gustave). UN ETE A LA CAMPAGNE. Correspondance de Deux Jeunes Parisiennes Recueillie par un Auteur a la Mode. Bruxelles-Paris: n.p., 1868-1910. 8vo, 222pp. Printed wrappers, lt soiling to wrappers, otherwise fine.  $200. ¶ Later Edition of the classic, published by the Briffaut brothers in 1910. Rare in all issues, the true first edition of 1868 collates to 228pp and has a frontispiece by F. Rops. The copy of G. Legman, who has penciled “[Briffaut]” to the inside of the wrapper. Proof of provenance provided. Dutel I, 876. Pia 1353. Perceau 35-13.

DUBOUT, A. CHANSONS DE SALLES DE GARDE. (Paris): Michéle Trinckvel, (1971). 4to, 203, (7)pp, frontispiece, color illus. throughout, many full and double page. Faux crimson morocco, gilt lettered and dec., teg, publisher’s slipcase, very fine in very good+ slipcase. $125. ¶ First Edition. Dubout’s charming and humorously explicit cartoons accompany his erotic songs, some with notated melodies. Though issued in an edition of 5050 copies, it has become quite scarce. Monod 2576.

DULAURE, J.A. PRIAPIC DIVINITIES AND PHALLIC RITES.  A Complete Account of the Worship of Priapus Throughout The Ages. Paris: Isidore Liseux, 1890. 8vo, 107pp. Orange cloth, paper spine label. Light wear to edges, slightly soiled, otherwise very good. $60. ¶ Early 20th-century abridged reprint of the  two volume first English translation (Rose 1455) of Dulaure’s classic, considered the standard text on phallicism. The original French edition of 1825 was reissued by Liseux in 1885 as Des Divinites Generatrices ou du Culte du Phallus Chez les Anciens et les Modernes. The source for the present edition is unknown, the Liseux imprint and date appear to be false, yet the typesetting is clearly by Charles Unsinger who is credited thus. It is possible that Liseux did indeed issue the original upon which the present edition is reprinted but this is by no means certain. In any case, rare, and not listed in any of the standard bibliographies.

[DUMARCHEY, Pierre]. Sadie Blackeyes. MISS. Souvenirs of a Special Kind of Boarding School by a “Lady of Quality.” Paris: Libraire Drouin, n.d., [1925]. 8vo, 191pp. Original illus. wrappers, soiling to wraps, mild wear, otherwise near fine. $175. ¶ First Edition in English. Vintage flagellation novel from Dumarchey, best known for his popular adventure stories issued under his pseudonym Pierre MacOrlan.  Originally issued as MISS. Souvenirs d'un Pensionnat de Correction, par une Demoiselle de bonne Famille  by publisher Jean Fort’s Libraire des Orties Blanches (White Nettles) in 1912 with subsequent reissues. The translater is as yet unknown. Not in the standard references. One copy at Kinsey Library, another at Bibliothéque National. Scarce.

[DUMARCHIN, Edouard]. E.D.  ODOR DE FEMINIA. [No place, Eric Losfield?, ca. 1956]. 12mo, . 6 very explicit b/w plates. White wrappers. Very good. $225. ¶ From the colleciton of G. Legman, with his note in black ink inside back cover:“[Paris: 1956]”  

DUTEL, Jean-Pierre. BIBLIOGRAPHIE DES OUVRAGES EROTIQUES Publiés Clandestinement en Français Entre 1920 et 1970. Paris: J-P Dutel, 2005. Large 8vo, 891, (5)pp, 1597 illus. Black cloth, dust jacket, new. Net price: $225. ¶ First Edition of the second volume of Dutel’s definitive bibliography of French clandestine erotica since 1880 features 1728 detailed entries (1427 not found in Pia), reproductions of 1597 covers or title pages, and a table identifying 120 authors, 111 illustrators and 32 editors. 

[DUVERGIER, C.]. Charles Monselet. SOUS LE MANTEAU. Paris: Alphonse Lemerre, 1889. 12mo, 89, (3)pp, head- tailpieces, dec. inits. Printed wrappers with vignette, some soiling, loss to spine head, otherwise very good. $75. ¶ First Edition. Ten sous le manteau (“under the cloak,” i.e. sub-rosa) short stories by Monselet (1825-88), drama critic and journalist for Le Figaro, whose over 75 works of prose and poetry (including La Fin de l’orgie, Le Plasir et l’Amour, and a biography of Rétif de Bretonne) were “admirably typical of …the Second Empire, witty, entertaining, accomplished…well worth disinterring” (OCFL). Not found in the standard references to erotica, with only three copies in OCLC, the volume under notice is quite scarce. It was reprinted in 1893 under the title Petit Pêchés (“Little Sins”). Thieme II, p.348. Talvert-Place 80. 

(Erotica). EROTOPAEGNIA. Choix de Poëmes Latins. Suvis d’une Nouvelle Traduction Francaise. [Paris]: n.p., [ca. 1948]. Sm. folio, unpaginated, unsewn, 15 engraved plates, misc. vignettes, fine in like printed wrappers in very good printed chemise within good slipacse. $1500. ¶ Limited to 130 copies on heavy rag Rives paper, this being copy 91 of a total edition of 180. The fifteen round ishizuri erotic etchings illustrate various excerpts from Martial, Petronius, Seneca, etc.

(Erotica). LA SECTE DES ANANDRYNES. Confession de Mademoiselle Sapho. Introduction et Notes par Jean Hervez [i.e. Raoul Vèze]. Paris: Bibliothèque des Curieux, (1920). 12mo, xxxvi, 144pp. Orig. wrappers printed in red & black, very good. $85. ¶ One of an edition limited to 500 numbered copies on papier d’Arches. This is another volume in the Coffret du Bibliophile series. Pia, Les Livres de l’Enfer, pp.1219-20. Cf. Bibliothèque la Léonina III, p.64. Not in Perceau nor Kearney. This edition not in NUC. 

(Erotica). NOUVEAU DECRET DU MANEGE FOUTEZ! L’Assemblée Nationale L’A Ainsi Décidé Suivi du Grand Détail Concernnant Les Dévots et les Dévotes Qui Ont Été Fouettés Par les Dames de la Halle a Paris. Réimprimés sur les éditions uniques et introuvables aujourd’hui. A Neuchatel [Turin?]: Imprimé par les Presses de la Société, 1872. 12mo, 22, (1)pp on vergé de Hollande. Half brown morocco over marbled boards. gilt lettered, fine. $150. ¶ Issued by J. Gay, number 10 in Gay’s Bibliothéque Libre series of rare book reprints, number 57 of 100 copies printed, originally published in 1790. With Legman’s signature to verso of ffep. “New Decree of the F**k Training,” apparently a satiric thrust at the post-Revolution government of France, then issuing scads of new decrees on just about everything concerning French public and private life. Scarce. Kearney, Publications of Jules and Jean Gay 331. Kearney, Private Case 1347. Pia 911-12

(Erotica). TABLEAUX DE FLAGELLATION FEMININE Dans le Monde Vertueux et Dans le Monde Galant Démontrant, d’Apres de faits Indubitables que Noimbre de Dames Prennent in Secret Plaisir à Fouetter Leurs Propres Enfants ou Ceux Confiés à Leurs Soins et que Leur Passion Pour Donner ou Goûter le Plaisir de la Verge avec des Partenaires des Deux Sexes, à Leur Goût, est au Moins Aussi Violente que Chez les Hommes…[And] LA DANSE DE MADAME BIRCHINI… Londres: G. Peacock [Jean Fort], 1777  [1910]. 2 vols, 8vo, 230pp, frontispiece, 15 full page color block-printed illus., 214, (2), frontispiece, 17 full page color block-printed illus. Red cloth, gilt lettered, near fine. $400. ¶ ?First Edition in French of J.C. Hotten’s Library Illustrative of Social Progess, a flagellation series reprinted by Hotten in 1872 from the 18th century G. Peacock editions, here with seven parts in two volumes: Exhibition of Femmale Flagellants (Parts 1 and 2), Lady Bumtickler’s Revels,  four short stories, Sublime of Flagellation, Fashionable Lectures; the volume of Meibomious here substituted with a later addition to the series, The Rodiad by George Coleman. The set under notice appears to have been published in Paris by Jean Fort ca. 1910; it is uniform in font/format/paper to other Fort publications examined by us. Not found in any of the standard references nor is a copy to be found in the Bibliothéque Nationale. The original 18th century editions are no longer extant; the Hotten editions are extremely scarce; those under notice merely quite so. Cf. Rose 2627. Cf. Rose 1645. Cf Ashby I, pp.238-243. Cf. Ashby II, p.471. Cf. Private Case 692, 693.

FELLOWES, Daisy. LES DIMANCHES DE LA Csse. DE NARBONNE. Illustrations de Vertes. Paris: Editions de France, (1935). 4to, (4), 191, (5), (1 table)pp, monochrome illus. throughout. Pale pink crushed morocco, with recessed pink swan vignette encaged behind clear plastic bars, spine lettered in gilt, lavender silk moire endleaves, printed endpapers, orig. pink wrappers (illus. in black and silver) preserved. Mild soiling at covers, faint marginal embrowning, slight bump at bottom corner text block, otherwise a nearly fine copy, housed in somewhat worn and soiled custom pink morocco-backed clamshell box. $2000. ¶ First Edition of this rare erotic novel, limited to 1000 numbered copies, in a marvellously imaginative custom binding and clamshell case. The artist’s manuscript dedication to the noted fashion designer reads: “To Adele Simpson this book from Paris 1936... Marcel Vertes 1944 Xmas New York City.” What appear to be the author’s initials in florid scipt follow with the date “Dec 25 ‘44.”

FIAUX, Louis. LA PROSTITUTION RÉGLEMENTÉE ET LES POUVOIRS PUBLICS dans les principaux etats des Deux-Mondes. Paris: Progrès Médical, 1902. 8vo, xliv, 354pp. Contemp. red cloth. Wear to front joint, library bookplate & rubber stamp, front free endpaper detached, otherwise very good. $250. ¶ First Edition of this extensive treatise on the regulation of prostitution in Belgium, Russia, France, and Switzerland. The author (b.1847), a prolific writer about prostitution, marriage and socialism, argues for stricter but humane regulation in France and decries the abuses of the “police des moeurs,” whom he claims are out of touch with the sentiments of the general populace. He also reviles the extremist legislation of René Bérenger, whom he considers a demagogue. NUC cites two copies only (DLC & DNLM).

FIRENZUOLA. TALES OF FIRENZUOLA. Benedictine Monk of Vallombrosa (XVIth century). For the First Time Translated into English. Paris: Isidore Liseux, 1889. Sm 8vo, xix, 180, (1 as Contents)pp, decorations, inits. Contemporary full morocco, gilt lettered, gilt orn. compartments, gilt ruled borders, dentelles, teg, later owner’s signature, joints rubbed, joints weak, but cords holding, otherwise very good. $35. ¶ First Edition, first English translation of these classic bawdy stories.

FOREL, August. DIE SEXUELLE FRAGE. Eine naturwissenschaftliche, psychologische, hygenische und soziologische Studie für Gebildete: 4. und 5. verbesserte und vermehrte Auflage… Munich: Ernst Reinhardt, 1906. 8vo, xii, 623, (1 ads)pp, 6 plates (with 23 figs.). Quarter green morocco over marbled boards, ruled in gilt, spine lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers, orig. wrappers bound in. Some wear to extremities, very good, with an inscription by Forel to the title page. $175. ¶ Second edition (despite title page) of a pioneering study in sex research, inscribed by Forel to Gustav Gärtner (1855-1934), inventor of the tonometer (one of the first instruments used to measure blood pressure) and the first to describe meat poisoning by B. enteritidis (cf. Garrison, 4th ed., pp.636, 712). This was “Forel’s best work; translated into 16 languages; 16th edition in 1931” (Garrison-Morton 1635). A compendium on the subject of sex, it discusses the history of sexual life and marriage, pathology, sexual jurisprudence and numerous other topics. Forel’s goal was to demonstrate the integral relationship between sex and society without incorporating prejudices and prudery, and he was mostly successful. On the topic of abortion, he wrote: “The right of the embryo to life should depend on the wish of the bearers of each of the two germs by which it is formed, at the moment of conception.” But on the topic of women’s libido, he was much less liberal: “The instinct of procreation is much stronger in woman than in man, and is combined with the desire to giver herself passively, to play the part of one who devotes herself, who is conquered, mastered and subjugated. These negative aspirations form part of the normal sexual appetite of woman.”

Auguste Henri Forel (1848-1931) ranks among the greatest of psychiatrists, entomologists, and anatomists. He was the first psychiatrist to develop successful means of treating alcholism. As an entomologist, he made almost all the pioneering studies on the behavior of ants and described 3500 new species of Hymenoptera. As an anatomist, he developed the first usable brain microtome, developed the concept of neurons independently of William His, and was the first to make histological preparations of the human brain; it is after him that a region of the hypothalamus is called the “campus Foreli.” Heirs of Hippocrates 2110. Garrison-Morton 1635 & Grinstein 9900. Cf. Sahli, Woman and Sexuality in America: A Bibliography, 158 (different editions). Cf. Norman Cat. 816;  Bibliothèque la Léonina III, p.25 (later edition) & DSB. Kiefer 1009 (later English).

GALLAIS, Alphonse. TABLEAU DE L’AMOUR CHARNEL. Ses Extases, Ses Tares, Ses Vices, Ses Démences, Ses Turpitudes et Ses Crimes. Edition Enrichie de 20 Compositions de Gaston Noury. Paris: Librairie du Nord (A. Patte), (1904). 8vo, 320pp, 20 illus. plates. Illus. wrappers, nearly very good. $150. ¶ First Edition of an extremely scarce title, not found in any of the standard references, nor the Kinsey Library. The Bibliothéque Nationale has a copy of a second edition (1905), but not the edition under notice. Gallais typically wrote under the anagramic pseudonym Dr. A. S. Lagail, and has been tentatively identified as “Grimaudin Échara,” author of the 10-volume Les Roman-Nouvelles. He wrote Les Paradis Charnel (1903); comparison of its table of contents with that of the edition under notice reveal that they are two completely different works. The subtitle accurately describes the work’s content: the ecstasies and extremes of sexual love. Of illustrator Gaston Noury, little is known; Benezit has only a perfunctory entry. His illustrations here are charmingly galante, softly explicit. In all, genuinely scarce. 

[GALLICHAN, Walter Matthew.]. Geoffrey Mortimer. CHAPTERS ON HUMAN LOVE. London: University Press, Ltd., 1900. 8vo, xv, 283, (4 ads)pp. Blue cloth, gilt lettered, near fine. $100. ¶ This early, rare work on sex-love for the general reader includes material on the origins of modesty, celibacy, sexual selection, sex rites, perversion, free love theories, phallicism and religious prostitution, and is noteworthy for its unusually open and modern views and rejection of spiritual-love based marriages without healthy erotic expression, which may explain the decision by the author (of whom little is known) to write under a pseudonym. Second edition, originally published in 1898. Both have become scarce. Cf. Goodland p.224.

[GEORGE IV, King of England, and Queen Caroline].  GYNECOCRACY, with An Essay on Fornication, Adultery, and Incest: by the Author of “Rumours of Treason,” a Work Suppressed in 1810. London: Printed for J.J. Stockdale, by Havilandï, Plymouth,  1821. 8vo, xvi, 655, (1) (1, ads), (1, blank)pp. Modern antique-style mottled calf. Covers with double gilt fillet border with gilt corner ornaments, spine decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt in compartments with red morocco gilt lettering label, top edge edge gilt. A handsome, uncut copy with the half-title and ads. $1750. ¶ First Edition of a rare work concerning the indiscretions of Queen Caroline. ESTC 2G2649. Copac notes but 2 copies in England.

[GLATIGNY, J.A.A.]. JOYEUSETES GALANTES ET AUTRES Du Vidame Bonaventure de la Braguette. Luxuriopolis:  A L’Enseigne du Beau Triorchis, L’An du Monde ??? [1884]. 8vo, 207pp, 2 frontispieces, 1 plate. Contemporary half red morocco over marbled boards, gilt lettered spine, raised bands, gilt decorated compartments, teg, fine. $350. ¶ A stunning copy, signed on ffep by the previous owner, the reknowned scholar of erotica, G. Legman, with notes in his hand to ffep verso. Published by August Brancart at Brussels in 1884, this edition (not to be confused with the Gay-Doucé 12mo edition of 1884), an anthology of Glatigny’s galante erotica, contains the explicit frontispiece by Felicien Rops from the Poulet-Malassis 1866 first edition, and includes a second frontis with title within not called for by Galitzin. Limited to 500 copies printed on vergé de Hollande. Quite scarce. Galitzin 15. Kearney, Private Case 813. Cf. Gay II, 739. Cf. Parke-Bernet, Libertine Literature 105. Cf. Bibliotheca Arcana 156.

GOODLAND, Roger. A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SEX RITES AND CUSTOMS. An Annotated Record of All Books, Articles and Illustrations In All Languages. London: George Routledge, 1931. 4to, 752pp. Green cloth, gilt lettered, very good.  $225. ¶ First Edition, the copy of the great scholar of erotica, G. Legman, with his signature and date (1938) on the endpaper. The standard reference in its field with over 9000 items listed. With Legman’s odd note to the front pastedown “Compiler’s mother Jewish, acc [according] Breaden, NYPL”.

GRAND-CARTERET, John. LES IMAGES GALANTES. Estampes Célèbres de nos plus Grans Maîtres des XVIIe  & XIXe Siècles. Contes et Récits Paillards. Musiques du Bon Vieux Temps. Chansons Gaies, Badines et Grivoises. Deuxième Série. Paris: Offenstadt - Librairie Artistique,  [1907-08]. 4to, 192pp, illus. throughout, some in color. Printed wrappers w/dec. borders, very good.  $150. ¶ 12 parts of 16 pages each of this bimonthly revue of galante literature issued between May, 1907 and May 1908

HENRY, F.N. LE DIABLE DUPE PAR LES FEMMES. Nouvelle Critique et Galante par… Bruxelles: Gay & Doucé, 1881. 12mo, 49pp, with engraved frontis. by Felicien Rops, text printed in red, green, & black. Vellum-backed boards. Very good with the orig. wrappers preserved. $150. ¶ One of 500 numbered copies of a reprint of the rare original edition of 1714. Gay I, p.890. Pia 320-21. Rose 2150. Not in The Private Case. Exteens 493. 

HESNAUT. LE MAL FRANÇAIS a l’Epoque de Expédition de Charles VIII en Italie. D’apres les Documents Originaux. Paris: C. Marpon et E. Flammarion, 1886. 8vo, vii, 208, (4)pp, headpeices, dec. inits. Printed wrappers, soiled, otherwise a tight, internally clean, very good copy. $100. ¶ First Edition, limited to 600 copies sur papier vergé of a total edition of 655. Fine study of the etiology and spread of syphilis including its medical treatment in contemporary practice, and the environmental, moral, and intellectual conditions that lead to the pandemic in Italy during the 15th century that ultimately crossed all borders into Europe as a result of Charles VIII’s Italian military campaign of 1494. Rare in original wrappers. 

HIRSCHFELD, Magnus. GESCHLECHTSKUNDE auf Grund dreißigjähriger Forschung und Erfahrung bearbeitet. Stuttgart: Julius Püttman, 1926-1930. 5 vols, 4to, xvi (incl. frontisportrait), 638; (6), 659; (6), 780 (incl. 13 pages of pub.’s ads); (4), 903 (incl. 1395 numbered illus.), (1), 65 numbered color plates; 235pp. Orig. blue cloth, light rubbing to boards, otherwise fine with the scarce index volume. $200. ¶ First Edition of the great sex researcher’s magnum opus. Hirschfeld (1868-1935) was one of the earliest sex researchers to aggresively advocate tolerance toward homosexuals, and his Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Homosexualität , recommended by Freud, became the most prominent forum for discussions about the “third sex,” an unhappy term that Hirschfeld, himself homosexual, coined. Among the few before the First World War to take an active role in the “reform of the antiquated sexual code that prevailed at the time” (Fine, History of Psychoanalysis, p.436), Hirschfeld initiated another journal, Zeitschrift für Sexualwissenschaft, to which Freud contributed and gave praise. Havelock Ellis also paid tribute to Hirschfeld in the third edition of Sexual Inversion, lauding him for his “scholarly history of the antiquated laws against homosexuality in Germany, [and for being the] first authority to deal adequately with lesbianism” (Grosskurth, Havelock Ellis, p.379). The current four-volume work provides a very comprehensive overview of human sexuality, in terms of its history, its varieties and their causes. About homosexuality in particular Hirschfeld argues that it, as many other varieties of sexuality, is congenital, and that sexual inversion might be caused by internal secretions. Just as Havelock Ellis’s and Margaret Sanger’s works were burned in 1933, the Nazis looted Hirschfeld’s Institute of Sexual Science, the first of its kind in the world for teaching all branches of sex science. Hirschfeld escaped and died in Nice. Cf. Gay, Freud, p.144, Ellenberger p.778, Jones II, p.295. Grinstein 14484. Bibliothéque la Léonina III, p.29 (first two vols. only).

(Homosexuality).  REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON HOMOSEXUAL OFFENCES AND PROSTITUTION. Presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Scotland by Command of Her Majesty. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1957. 8vo, 156pp. Orig. blue printed wrappers, very good, with “1.50 USA Dollars” stamped on front.  $250. ¶ First Edition of the so-called “Wolfenden Report,” named after the chairman of the committee charged with evaluating homosexual affairs in Great Britain. The report, occasioned by the trial and conviction of Lord Montagu for homosexual crimes, precipitated the first significant changes in Britain’s barbaric laws classifying all homosexual activity as criminal. Wolfenden argues that even if we classify homosexuality as a sin, the law should distinguish between sin and crime. The thoroughness of Wolfenden’s research as well as his persuasivess about the need to repeal and amend the prevailing laws make this a landmark in homosexual history. An article from the Times, reporting on the committee’s earlier, preliminary findings is laid in. Cf. Parker, Homosexuality, Selected Abstracts and Bibliography (1966), in A Gay Bibliography (Arno Press) p.47 for a chronology of British legislative activity regarding homosexuality & p.54 for a summary of the Wolfenden Report. Cf. Weinberg & Bell 1150. 

HUTH, Alfred Henry. THE MARRIAGE OF NEAR KIN Considered with Respect to the Laws of Nations, the Results of Experience, and the Teachings of Biology. London: Longmans, Green, 1887. 8vo, x, 475pp, 8 foldout charts. Publisher’s original brown cloth, gilt lettered, beveled edges, library stamp to t-p & edges, otherwise very good. $75. ¶ Second Edition, Revised, the most desirable issue of this detailed study of incest from various perspectives.

KNIGHT, Richard Payne [& Thomas Wright, James Emerson Tennent, George Witt].  A DISCOURSE ON THE WORSHIP OF PRIAPUS, and Its Connection With the Mystic Theology of the Ancients (a New Edition) to Which Is Added an Essay on the Worship of the Generative Powers During the Middle Ages of Western Europe. London: Privately Printed [J.C. Hotten]: 1865, [i.e. 1894]. 8vo, xvi, 254pp, 40 plates. Quarter morocco, burgundy roxburghe boards, rehinged, endpapers renewed, light edgewear, very good. $250. ¶ Reprint with corrected misprints of the Hotten, 1865 edition. The Knight essay, the first discussion in English on sex worship, was originally issued in 1786 and reprinted with the essay by Wright et al., appended by Hotten to comprise the now classic Two Essays on the Worship of Priapus. A cornerstone volume, now quite rare. Edition of 500 of which this is hand-numbered 151. Goodland p.328. Rose 2415. Legman p.442. Cf. Norman Library Catalogue 1226. Cf. Rousseau, Sexual Underworlds of the Enlightenment, pp.101-153. Messmann p.43.

KORNMANN, Henri. SIBYLLA TRIG-ANDRIANA SEU DE VIRGINITATE, VIRGINUM STATU ET JURE TRACTATUS JUCUNDUS: Ex Jure Naturali, Divino, Canonico & Civili; Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis & Profanis, in Gratiam Physicorum, Medicorum, Theologorum & Juridocorum Paratus [with] LINEA AMORIS SIVE COMMENTARIUS [with] DE ANNULO TRIPLICI. Coloniae: Petri Marteau 1765. 3 vols in one, 8vo, 423pp, separate titlepages with engraved vignettes, head- tailpieces. Contemp. full mottled calf, gilt lettering to pale green calf spine label, raised bands, gilt dec. compartments, gilt tooled edges, red-stained edges, corners worn to boards, sm loss to headcap, occasional mild foxing, unobtrusive worming to gutter margins of pp130-344, otherwise a tight, crisp, very good copy. $500. ¶ Editio Nova Diligenter Correcta of Kornmann’s three rare tracts on women, a marvelous Association Copy belonging to the late, great scholar of erotica G. Legman, who has signed and dated the ffep. ¶ Kornmann (ca.1580-1620), a lawyer, here offers his counsel and a plethora of curious, sacred and profane information on the rights and duties of women and the rules and conduct of women in matters of love and sex based upon classical writings, theology, superstition, magic, popular folklore, and his own unusual, rather modern opinions. Thus while we are presented with positive views of women in the arts, diplomacy, and military service, we also learn that when a virgin picks the first fruit of a tree, the tree is doomed; of the role of succubi and incubi; the best colors for women to wear; and what parts of the human body are ruled by the zodiac sign Virgo, the virgin. At once erotic, medical and occult, the tracts were an immediate success when initially published in Frankfurt, 1610, and continued to be so through six later 17th century editions. All, including the edition under notice, are rare. Though Gay considers this book “singulier sont bizarres et ridicules,” it is nonetheless a fascinating, compelling volume. Gay-Lemonnyer 1113-1114. Caillet 5829. Wellcome I, 3582. 

KOUKOULES, Mary. LOOSE-TONGUED GREEKS. A Miscellany of Neo-Hellenic Erotic Folklore. Translated by John Taylor. With an Introduction by G. Legman. Paris: Digamma Bibliophilic Edition, 1983. Sm 4to, 182pp, unsewn in crisp mauve flapped wrapper w/erotic vignette within folding blue outer case, as new in fine outer case $275. ¶ First Edition, limited to 303 numbered and signed copies, this example stamped Author’s Copy, a gift of the author, apparently, to G. Legman who wrote the Introduction and whose copy this is. A beautiful production designed by Elias Petropoulos with text within mauve borders, and printed on Arches paper. Proof of provenance provided. 

LAPORTE, A.] BIBLIOGRAPHIE CLERICO-GALANTE Ouvrages Galantes ou Singuliers sur l’Amour, Les Femmes, Le Marriage, le Théâtre, etc.… Paris: Laporte, 1879. 8vo, xxviii, 178pp. Later wrappers with the original printed front & rear cover preserved, browned, but very good. $85. ¶ First Edition. A bibliography devoted exclusively to erotica written by members of the clergy: abbots, priests, canons, monks & nuns, bishops, archbishops, cardinals & popes. It contains useful notes and good bibliographical information. Deakin 14. Galitzin 218. Kearney p.47.

(LE PILEUR, Dr. L.) LA PROSTITUTION du XIII au XVII Siecle. D’Apres un Livre Recent. Extrait de la Chronique Medicale. Paris: 1910. 8vo, (3)pp, printed wrappers. Fine. $75. ¶ Edouard Champion’s own copy of his review (written with Honoré) of Dr. Le Pileur’s book, originally published by Honoré Champion in 1908, here reprinted on fine paper from Chronique Medicale in an edition of 35 copies only. Le Pileur was a major medical researcher on the subject of prostitution, hygiene and venereal disease. Bullough & Elcano, Bibl. of Prostitution, 2845.

LECOUR, C[harles] J[érôme]. LA PROSTITUTION A PARIS ET A LONDRES 1789-1870. Paris: P. Asselin, 1870. 8vo, (8), 372, 6 ( ads)pp. Quarter red calf, marbled boards, spine lettered & ruled in gilt, sm. library label on spine, headcap chipped, joints worn, light foxing. $250. ¶ First Edition of one of the greatest sociological and criminological investigations of prostitution. Much of the work is based on interviews conducted by Lecour (b.1823), who was a “commissaire interrogateur” for the prefect of the Paris police. Students of prostitution will remember that French criminal law takes no cognizance of prostitution and that all regulation rests on the law of 1790, which entrusted the  maintenance of public tranquility in Paris with the prefect of the Paris police. His decrees were the only form of legislation. The volume reprints many of these decrees and related legislation and includes Lecour’s views on the regulation of brothels. Much British law, including the Contagious Diseases Prevention Act, is also reprinted, with Lecour’s comparison of the respective countries’ manners of dealing with prostitution. Le Clère, Bib. Crit. de la Police, 602, noting a second edition of 1872.

[with] GRANVEAU, A. LA PROSTITUTION, Situation des Moeurs a Paris. Paris: Librairie Martinon, 1872. 142, (1)pp. Second Edition of another view of prostitution, this one taking a more reactionary stance toward the practice. The work includes suggestions on “remedies” and “moral reforms” to be inculcated in Parisian society. NUC cites one copy.

LECOUR, C[harles] J[érôme]. LA PROSTITUTION A PARIS ET A LONDRES 1789-1870. Paris: P. Asselin, 1870. 8vo, (8), 372, 6 ads pp. Modern green library cloth, gilt leather label. Some foxing, but very good. $250. ¶ First Edition of one of the greatest sociological and criminological investigations of prostitution. Much of the work is based on interviews conducted by Lecour (b.1823), who was a “commissaire interrogateur” for the prefect of the Paris police. Students of prostitution will remember that French criminal law takes no cognizance of prostitution and that all regulation rests on the law of 1790, which entrusted the maintenance of public tranquility in Paris with the prefect of the Paris police. His decrees were the only form of legislation. The volume reprints many of these decrees and related legislation and includes Lecour’s views on the regulation of brothels. Much British law, including the Contagious Diseases Prevention Act, is also reprinted, with Lecour’s comparison of the respective countries’ manners of dealing with prostitution. Le Clère, Bib. Crit. de la Police, 602, noting a second edition of 1872.

[LEGMAN, G. or Robert Sewall]. L. Erectus Mentulus. THE PASSIONATE PEDANT. Being a New Oxford Thesis on Love, Wherein L. Erectus Mentulus, Late of Oxford Establishes Incontrovertably That the Sexual Enjoyment of Women of Divers Races is Evocative of Distinctly Different Types and Degrees of Pleasure, Through Narratives of his Own Experience, with Particular Emphasis Upon Psycho-Physiological Adumbrations et cetera, For the Entertainment as Well as the Enlightenment of His Friends. “In Cunnis Diversis - Voluptates Diversae.” Oshkosh, WI: Done by the Hand of the Author…,  1939. 4to, 104ff, rectos only. Illus. wrappers, mimeographed typed mss, fine in very good wrappers.  $750. ¶ First (only) Edition. In 1938, Hollywood publicist Lupton Wilkinson wrote the acclaimed American masterpiece of erotica, An Oxford Thesis on Love, a series of comic dialogues. Soon after, according to erotica scholar, G. Legman, “he wanted me to write some continuations of this for a private customer, in the same style, at $50 for each one-hundred page erotic manuscript; and finally agreed I could write in any style I liked. I wrote a number of these manuscripts…and turned the job over to a friend of mine named Robert Sewall, very talented at pastiche.” The second installment has been published as The Oxford Professor Returns, written by Sewall.  While it is certainly possible that Legman is responsible for the manuscript under notice, its fine writing and stylistic similarity to the original (it is, indeed, in many ways better written than the original) suggests authorship by Sewall, whose fame rests upon The Devil’s Advocate, without question the masterpiece of sexually explicit American literature during the clandestine era. Unrecorded in the standard references, with no copy at the Kinsey Library or British Library, only a few copies are known to exist; it rarely appears in the marketplace. The wrapper illustration is believed to be by Emil Ganso (1895-1941), the German expatriate painter who was part of the Woodstock [N.Y.] School of art. Exceedingly scarce. Private Case pp.52-3. Legman, The Horn Book, p.36. Scheiner, Intro. to White Stains, p.ix. 

LEMERCIER DE NEUVILLE, MM., et J. Du Boys. LE BOUT DE L’AN DE LA NOCE. Parodie du Bout de l’An de l’Amour par M. Théodore Barriere. N.p. [Bruxelles]: Partout et Nulle Part [Henry Kistemackers] 1883. 8vo, 26pp. 20th century wrappers over original blue wrappers, very good. $100. ¶ First Separate Edition, limited to 200 copies, a short erotic play originally issued as part of Le Théatre Érotique de la Rue de la Santé in 1864. With the autofellating faun vignette to titlepage. Perceau 30-1, 30-2, 59-1. Dutel 88. Galitzin 248. Gay-Lemonnyer I-428. Stern-Stanza 145.

LEWANDOWSKI, Dr. Herbert. DAS SEXUALPROBLEM IN DER MODERNEN LITERATURE UND KUNST. Versuch einer Analyse und Psychopathologie des Künstlerischen Schaffens und der Kuturentwicklung Siet 1800. Dresden: Paul Aretz,  (1927). Tall 8vo, 361, (1)pp, color frontispiece, 7 color plates on stubs, 238 text illus. Green cloth, gilt lettering to yellow stamped spine label, gilt ruled spine and borders, light soiling to cloth, closed margin tear to pp.191-200, otherwise very good. $40. ¶ First Trade Edition. Study of sexual perversion in literature and art since 1800. Hayn-Gotendorf IX, 348.

LINDSEY, Ben[jamin] B. & Wainwright Evans. THE COMPANIONATE MARRIAGE. New York: Boni & Liveright, 1927. 8vo, xvi, 396pp. Orig. blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Bookplate, a very good copy, with several obituaries & other materials about Lindsey laid-in. $125. ¶ First Edition, presentation copy, inscribed by Judge Lindsey and his wife on Oct. 1, 1927. One of the most discussed books in its day, The Companionate Marriage was often decried but seldom read by its detractors. Lindsey’s proposal, “Legal marriage with legalized birth control and with the right to divorce by mutual consent for childless couples, usually without payment of alimony,” was the storm center in many religious, medical, and legislative controversies, which usually involved a confusion of companionate marriage with trial marriage. In one instance, Lindsey was ejected from New York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine after Bishop Manning had scathingly denounced the jurist. Lindsey (1869-1943) is also remembered for his tireless efforts on behalf of children. He introduced the first juvenile court in the U.S. in Denver and established in Los Angeles a conciliation court for divorce cases. Lindsey’s ideas about marriage were admired by Thomas Edison, Clarence Darrow, Luther Burbank, H.G. Wells, Havelock Ellis, and G.B. Shaw.

LOUVET DE COUVRAY, [Jean Baptiste]. LES AMOURS DU CHEVALIER DE FAUBLAS. Paris: Chez Boulland et Cie, 1825. 4 vols, 8vo, 20 engraved explicit erotic plates. Later 19th century half crimson morocco over marbled boards, raised bands, gilt lettering and orn. compartments, occasional lt foxing, 1 closed tear to one leaf, otherwise a most attractive copy with the mildest of wear, and near fine. $1250. ¶ Nouvelle Edition. To all appearances, a reprint of the Tardieu edition of 1821 with 20 of the 27 plates found in that earlier issue, of which Brunet declares “la plus belle des nombreuses éditions de ce roman licencieux.” ¶ Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvray (1760-1797) wrote this, his quite free novel of the manner and mores, foibles and vices of the Fench aristocracy, in three parts 1787-1789, then became a revolutionary and member of the Convention nationale.  Many of the plates to this edition are most unusual, with explicit, lively transvestite and homosexual scenes. Amongst the rarest of all editions of this oft reprinted work. Cf. Brunet III, 1189.

[LOUYS, Pierre]. HISTOIRE DU ROI GONZALVE ET DES DOUZE PRINCESSES. Madrid [Paris]: Aux Depens d’un Bibliophile [René Bonnel], [1933]. 32mo, 129, (1 blank), (1 colophon)pp, frontispiece w/gray tissue guard, 11 illus. Rose wrappers within custom marbled overwrap, wrapper label bearing design of a phallic crown, fine.  $600. ¶ First Illustrated Edition, limited to 200 copies on vélin de Mongolfier numbered 6-205 out of a total of 205, this being hand-numbered copy 202. A marvelous Association Copy, that of G. Legman, a close friend of eroticist and bibliograper Pascal Pia who created the publisher’s dummy for Bonnel’s first edition of 1927 and supervised its production from Louys unfinished manuscript. Eaux-fortes en noir by noted Le Belle Epoque illustrator Auguste Brouet, not known for any other erotic work. According to Legman’s widow, the marbled overwrapper by Legman was “the signal of a favorite book” (note to the cataloguer). With a small bibliographical note by Legman inside rear wrapper asserting Pia & Bonnel as responsible for the present edition. Scarce with phallic crown vignette to wrappers as called for. Pia 595. Private Case 1054. Monod 7414. Cf. Perceau 338.

LOUYS, Pierre; Edouard Chimot, illustrator. LES CHANSONS DE BILITIS. Illustrées de Douze Eaux-Fortes Originales Gravées par Edouard Chimot. [Paris]: Imprimé Pour l’Artiste et ses Amis, (1925). 4to, 158, (2)pp, frontispiece, 19 eaux-fortes, 1 planche refusee, 1 original drawing. Unsewn in original printed wrappers within maroon chemise and slipcase, fine.  $7500. ¶ Exemplaire Hors Commerce Réservé Spécialement à Monsieur Edouard Champion (the renowned French publisher and collector), Signed by the Artist, one of only 40 copies (of an edition of 576) specially produced for the artist and his friends, handsomely printed on China paper with each of the original 12 eaux-fortes in four states, plus an additional suite of eight eaux-fortes in four states, a refused plate, and an original drawing by Chimot. The drawing is inscribed to Champion and a confidential ALS to Champion from the artist is laid in.  ¶ Originally published in 1894, The Chansons de Bilitis is the purported translation by Louÿs of a series of poems by an ancient contemporary of Sappho. In reality, written by Louÿs himself, and considered to be one of the greatest literary hoaxes of the 19th century. This edition not found in Perceau or Pia. Monod 7383. 

LUCAS, Hippolyte. HEURES D’AMOUR. Paris: Jules Gay, 1864. 12mo, iv, 224pp. Contemporary full blue morocco, gilt lettered, gilt orn. spine, gilt ruled borders with gilt corner devices within French fillets, gilt-tooled edges, dentelles, aeg, occasional foxing, otherwise near fine. $200. ¶ Quatrième Edition, Inscribed by the Author on the half-title, limited to 150 copies on papier ordinaire glacé. This collection of gallantly erotic poety was originally published at Paris by Moutardier in 1834 under the title le Couer et le monde. That, as well as the second and third editions, are exceedingly scarce. Only one copy of the edition under notice in OCLC. Gay II, 472. Kearney, Bibliog. of Jules and Jean Gay, 274.

M***  M. de [i.e. FOUGERAT DE MONTBRON, Jean-Louis] MARGOT LA RAVADEUSE (Histoire d’une Prostituée). [Brussels, ca. 1880]. 12mo, 115pp. Half blue morocco, marbled boards, t.e.g. Very good. $100. ¶ Apparently first printed in 1750, this is a reprint of the 1774 Hamburg edition; editions were condemned throughout the nineteenth century. The copy of this edition in the British Library is limited to 64 copies (see The Private Case 733). Gay III, 34-5: “Ce roman a des prétensions philosophiques, ce qui est sans doute la cause de sa condamnation.” Arcana 93. Rose 1799. This edition not in Pia.

MAGRE, Maurice. LA NUIT DE HASCHICH ET D’OPIUM. Bois en couleurs de Ahü. [Paris]: Flammarion, [1929]. Sm. 4to, 76, (1, colophon)pp, 4 3-color plates in woodcut, ornaments. Orig. pictorial wrappers. Slightest wear to exremites, otherwise nearly fine. $250. ¶ One of fifty copies on Hollande van Gelder Zonen in a total edition of 890. Beautifully illustrated, the work narrates a series of bizarre events and impressions. Maurice Magre (1877-1942), described by Liedekerke as “un familier des fumeries” considered the drugged state the only reality. A companion of Claude Farrère, he wrote books and poems focusing on drugs and lurid topics. Cf. Liedekierke, p.156, for a reproduction of a woodcut. Phantastica 169.

(Maitres de l’Amour). L’Oeuvre des Conteurs Francais. Premiere Partie. Les Heures perdues d’un Cavalier Francais (xvi Siecle), Les Contes aux Heures perdues du sieur d’Ouville. Introduction et Notes par B. de Villeneuve (Raoul Veze). [bound with} L’Oeuvre des Conteurs Allemands. Memoires d’une Chanteuse Allemand (xlx Siecle). Introduction by Guillaume Appollinaire. Paris: Bibliothèque des Curieux, 1921 & 1913. 2 vols bound in 1, 8vo, 294; 285pp, 3/4 brown morocco, gilt titles, marbled boards, bookplate, very light wear, but very good. $100. ¶ Two volumes from the acclaimed Briffaut brothers Maitre de l’Amour series, here beautifully bound together. “Conteurs Francais” was originally published in 1620 &1643. Memoires d’une Chanteuse Allemand (Memoirs of a German Opera Singer, attributed to Wilhelmina Schroeder-Devrient) was originally published in Germany circa 1865. Rose p.378.

MANTEGAZZA, Prof. Paolo. ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDIES IN THE SEXUAL RELATIONS OF MANKIND. New York: Falstaff Press, (1937). 8vo, (10), 258, (4 blank), (108)pp, 500 illus. in cyan and sepia. Quarter cloth over illus. boards, owner’s sig., wear to extremities, lt soiling, a few stains to boards, lt dampstaining to lower fore edge of rear ff, otherwise a tight, not quite very good copy. $40. ¶ Special Edition of James Bruce’s English translation of Mantegazza’s Gli Amori degli Uomini (1885), with an anthropological cabinet if 500 racial photographs and illustrations compiled by Robert Meadows. With Bruce’s 16 page pamphlet, The Natural Method of Birth Control laid in. From publisher Ben Rebhuhn, who was granted the copyright by Panurge Press publisher Esar Levine after Levine was indicted for obscenity. Rare edition of a fairly common book; the Cabinet is usually seen separately.

(Marquis de Sade). RACHILDE. [Pseud. of Mme. Alfred Valette, née Marguerite Eymery]. LA MARQUISE DE SADE. Frontispiece de Lunel. Tètes de Chapitres de F. Fau. Culs-de-Lampe de Stein. Paris: ed. Monnier, 1887. 8vo, 387pp, frontispiece, head- tailpieces. Contemp. half crimson morocco over marbled boards, deep blue morocco spine label, raised bands, gilt orn. compartments with blue morocco inlays, teg, custom patterned endpapers, original illus. wrappers preserved, an occasinal stain, creased corner, faded library stamp, otherwise very good in near fine binding. $200. ¶ First Edition, later printing (wrapper states 1886, titlepage 1887). Rachilde was co-founder, with her husband, of the acclaimed literary journal Le Mercure de France. Here, she presents a proto-feminist novel whose frontispiece motto concisely sums up the Romantic movement and the Symbolists: “Aimer c’est Souffrir” (To care is to suffer). Wrapper illustration in color on rose paper by Eugene Grasset. In a most attractive binding. Thieme p.556.

(Marriage). LES QUINZE JOYES DE MARIAGE. Nouvelle Edition Conforme au Manuscrit de la Bibliothéque Publique de Rouen. Avec les Variantes des Anciennes Editions une Notice Bibliographique et des Notes. Paris: P. Jannet, 1853. 12mo, 179, (1)pp, head -tailpieces, dec. inits. Printed wrappers, some loss to darkened backstrip, lt soiling/toning to wrappers, otherwise very good. $350. ¶ First Jannet/ Bibliothéque Elzevirienne Edition of the 15th century satiric classic on the miseries of marriage variously attributed to Antoine de la Salle or François de Rosset. Gay considers this particular edition, strongly and carefully done with its many notes, to be the best produced. The work in general has had incontestable influence upon French literature and was not unknown to Rabelais and Molière. Scarce in the marketplace. Gay-Lemmonyer III, 913-916. Cf. Rose 2841.

MASON, Rainer Michael (ed.). EROS INVAINCU. La Bibliothèque Gérard Nordmann. Florilège Etabli Sous la Direction de Monique Nordmann. Commenté par Laurent Adret. Saba Bahor. François Bléchet. Arto Clerc. Laurent Darbellay. Michel Décaudin. Daniela De Mare. Stefano Dubbio. Jacques Duprilot. Jean-Paul Goujon. Myrtille Hugnet. Tamio Ikeda. Michel Jeanneret. Dominique Kunz Westerhoff. Annie Le Brun. Jean-Jacques Pauvert. Guy Poitry. Christophe Reuland. Stefan Schoettke. Nathalie Strasser. Edité par… Genève- Paris: Fond. Martin Bodmer - Editions Cercle d’Art, 2005. Tall 4to, 337, (7)pp, 370 full color illus., misc. 2-color illus. Maroon blindstamped linen, dust jacket, new. $250. ¶ Only Edition of the most lavishly produced catalogue of erotic literature ever published, a sumptuous, key reference to many thusfar unrecorded or exceedingly scarce volumes, with reproduced titlepages and illustrations to each of the entries as well as lengthly, erudite, detailed notes and commentary with information not found elsewhere. ¶ The late Gerard Nordmann (1930-1992) of Geneva amassed one of the greatest collections of erotica in history, a library of near 2000 books, manuscripts, letters, documents, and curiosa noted for its emphasis on items of very small limitation and much unique material, not the least of which are Sade’s autograph manuscript for 120 Journées de Sodome, the autograph manuscript of Reage/Aury/Desclos’ Histoire d’O, the only extant copy of the first edition of Aretino’s Sonnetti Lusssuriosi, and the first edition of La Popelinière’s Tableaux des Moeurs du Temps...(1750). The 137 entries here represent the rarest of the rare in all of erotic literature across the centuries, the crème de la crème of Mr Nordmann’s collection. Text in French.

MICHU, Claude. UN GENIE EN HERBE Paris: Chez Tous les Libraires, 1866. 12mo, 192pp. Quarter crimson morocco over red pebbled paper boards, gilt lettered, blindstamped spine dec., sprinkled edges, some rubbing, soiling to boards, otherwise a tight, internally clean copy. $200. ¶ Only Edition, “ouvrage tiré à petit nombre pour les grandes amateurs,” with marvelous Association, the copy of erotica scholar G. Legman who has provided bibliographical notes in his hand to verso of the front free endpaper declaring the work to be unknown to Gay, that the book was condemned on April 24, 1868, most of the copies destroyed and the author sentenced to six months in prison and fined 500 francs. ¶ A series of twenty-two short prose pieces of the early-Symbolist school, Michu was clearly influenced by Baudelaire. Indeed, stories include Après Le Voyage a Cythère, Naissance et Crevaison, L’apparition. Little is known of Michu, who in addition to the volume under notice has 17 other books to his credit yet remains a largely forgotten figure in French literature. Not found in any of the usual references. Exceedingly scarce. 

MILLER, Henry. BLACK SPRING. Paris: Obelisk Press, (1936). 8vo, 267pp. Black cloth, gilt lettered and ruled spine, original wrappers preserved, fine. $2500. ¶ First Edition, dated June 1936, with marvelous association, the copy of erotica scholar G. Legman with his dated (1938) signature to front free endpaper. ¶ When they fled Paris to the U.S. at the onset of WWII, it was Legman who arranged for Miller and Anais Nin to write privately commissioned erotic manuscripts for Roy M. Johnson, the Oklahoma oil millionaire whose porn commissions kept many a struggling writer in food, clothing and shelter while they awaited fame with their mainstream work. In 1940, Legman worked as proof-reader for Jack Brussel’s clandestinely published First American (“Medusa”) Edition of Tropic Of Cancer. This copy undoubtedly bought by Legman from his friend Frances Steloff’s Gotham Book Mart in NYC, which had been discreetly smuggling copies of Miller’s books into the U.S. since the publication of Tropic of Cancer in Paris in 1934.
¶ Wrapper illustration by Maurice Kahane, son of Obelisk Press publisher Jack Kahane, who would change his name to Maurice Girodias during the war to avoid Nazi anti-semitism and later establish Olympia Press in Paris during the 1950s. Only 1000 copies of this first edition printed, the overwhelming majority now lost. Shifteen & Jackson A12. Private Case, pp.54-55. 

MIRABEAU [Honoré Gabriel Riquetti, comte de]. EROTIKA BIBLION. Edition Revue et Corrigée sur L’Edition Originale de 1783 et sur L’Edition de L’An IX avec les Notes de L’Edition de 1833 Attribuées au Chevalier Pierrugues et un Avant-Propos par C. de Katrix. Bruxelles, Gay et Doucé, 1881. 8vo, xxix, 267, (5)pp, engraved frontispiece by J. Chauvet, portrait, 1 facsimile letter. Later 19th c. quarter cyan morocco over marbled boards, gilt lettering, gilt dec. compartments, original wrappers preserved, near fine. $375. ¶ Limited to 500 hand-numbered copies on Van Gelder Holland, this being no. 113, the copy of G. Legman with his dated signature. Scarce in the marketplace. Pia 416. Kearney, Bibliog. of Jules & Jean Gay, 302. Private Case 1197. Gay-Lemonnyer II, 150.

MONTEGRE, A[ntoine François] J[enin] de. DU MAGNETISME ANIMAL ET DE SES PARTISANS, ou, Recueil de Pièces Importantes sur Cet Objet, Précédé des Observations Récemment Publiées. Paris: D. Colas, 1812. 8vo, (4), 139pp. Orig. paste-paper wrappers & label. Spine worn, lower right corner of front wrapper worn away with slight affect to half-title, otherwise very good. $200. ¶ First Edition, which includes reprints of articles from the Journal de Paris, the reports of the commissioners, as well as their secret report to the king describing the erotic and sexual factors behind animal magnetism. Caillet 7962. Crabtree 239. Dureau p.83. Norman M110. Tinterow p.80. Cf. Tinterow, Foundations of Hypnosis, p.582.

NEUTRA, Wilhelm. MORPHINISMUS UND EROTISMUS, Lustenergetisch Fundierte Suggestions- und Hypnosetherapie Patholgischer Leidenschaften. Leipzig & Vienna: Franz Deuticke, 1923. 8vo, (viii), 194pp. Dark red cloth stamped in gilt. Front flyleaf & bookplate removed, paper browned & brittle. $85. ¶ First Edition. One of the earliest - if not the earliest - studies to examine the neurotic connection between sexual passion and the pathological passion for morphine from a psychoanalytic perspective. 

NEWMAN, A. [pseud. of Francis Edwin Murray]. RONDEAUX OF BOYHOOD. By A. Newman. With an Introduction by John Gambril Nicholson. London: Privately Printed… [i.e. F.E. Murray], 1923. Sm. 8vo, 68pp, frontis. photo of a naked boy ensconced in tree. Brown boards, paper labels. Light rubbing to boards & browning to spine’s label, otherwise fine & unopened. $250. ¶ Only Edition, limited to a total of 300 copies in all formats, of F.E. Murray’s first book of poems. “The new poet immediately identified himself with the Uranians by the use of the rondeau, the verse-form Gleeson White had revived in the eighteen-eighties. One might suspect that the book was of Nicholson’s fashioning were he not always…determined that all his writings should go forth under his own name, and had he not contributed a Foreward to ‘Newman’s’ book” (d’Arch Smith, Love in Earnest). 

OLIVIER, Jacques. ALPHABET DE L’IMPERFECTION ET MALICE DES FEMMES. Reveu, Corrigé. et Augmenté d’un Friand Dessert et de Plusieurs Histoires pour les Courtisans et Partisans de la Femme Mondaine. Paris: A. Barraud, 1876 Royal 8vo, xi, 271pp, 40 engravings by Cattelain after designs by Gilbert, 22 tailpieces after Choffard. Later half maroon morocco over patterned boards, raised bands, gilt lettered, teg, marbled endpapers, original wrappers preserved, a few leaves toned, an occasional offset and scattered foxing, otherwise a near fine copy. $400. ¶ First Edition thus, one of 300 large paper copies on Hollande, this being no. 66, the copy of sexual folklorist G. Legman with his dated signature. First published in 1617, this edition has additional material not found in the original edition, an avant-propos by Philomneste Junior [Gustave Brunet], and features highly evocative illustations, not the least of which is found at p.258, a vivid tableau of a nude woman astride a dragon, wild animals clutched in each hand, Eros’ arrows protruding through her mouth and eye sockets, and serpents suckling at her breasts. Cover illustration by Henry Somm. Gay-Lemonnyer I, 69-71. Cf. Brunet IV, 182.

OVID. L’ART D’AIMER.  Paris: L’Edition des Mille, (1913). 8vo, 140, (1)pp, dec. borders and inits. Illus. wrappers, some soiling, otherwise internally clean, very good. $75. ¶ First Edition thus, limited to 700 numbered copies sur vélin, this being copy 360. A lovely edition, translated by Héguin de Guerle and handsomely printed with decorations by M. Munné. Scarce.

PARENT-DUCHATELET, A[lexis]-J[ean]-B[aptiste]. DE LA PROSTITUTION DANS LA VILLE DE PARIS… Brussels: Société Encyclographique des Sciences Médicales, 1838. 4to, xiv, 358pp, 2 folding maps, 1 folding chart. Contemp black boards, orange calf label, edges stained red. Rubbing to boards, foxing to plates & several leaves, signature to half-title. A very good copy. $150. ¶ Second Belgian edition, the true first published two years earlier. Of the numerous publications on prostitution this was by far “le plus connu et le plus estimé” (Larousse) and the only one to have had tangible effects on public policy and legislation in Paris. Detailing the economic, moral, hygenic and administrative aspects of prostitution in France, the author compiled one of the most thorough and humanistic expositions of that practice. Michaud goes so far as to say that if the work did not show the means to rid modern civilization of prostitution, it certainly showed how to diminish it. Larousse claims no one before Parent-Duchâtalet, except perhaps Restif de la Bretonne, had addressed prostitution from a moral standpoint. And L. Chevalier (Classes laborieuses, classes dangereuses, p.99) wrote, “Parent-Duchatelet est celui quie joua le plus grand rôle dans la recherche de l’ unité des conséquences matérielles et morales de l’expansion urbaine… un grand livre…” ¶ A.J.B Parent-Duchatelet (1790-1836) practiced medicine for several years, until he suddenly switched his occupation to the study of public health. Named member and then president of the council on public sanitation in Paris, he pursued his new interest with an amazing zeal, publishing a number of works that immediately led to the construction of sewers in many quarters of that city which did not previously have them. When he was not publishing, he was attending to the poor. As part of a commision to study the spread of cholera in Paris, he apparently died from a job related cause. His biography, included in this volume, is by François Leuret (1797-1851), the first to publish a systematic investigation of the mammalian brain and the namer of the “fissure of Rolando,” after Luigi Rolando who first described it. Cf. Garrison-Morton 1607, Heirs of Hippocrates 1459 & Larousse XIII, 298, for an article on the book.

[PENNE (or Pène), Henri de]. MEMOIRES D’UNE FEMME DE CHAMBRE. Paris: E. Dentu, 1864. 8vo, (4), 318pp, with orig. photographic frontis. Cloth-backed boards. Good. $225. ¶ The discreetly erotic frontispiece, an original photograph by Vaury & Cie, shows a woman in a black velvet mask. Gay III, 152: “Mémoires curieux et devenus peu communs.”  The fifth edition, this work has sometimes been attributed to Alfred Delvau. Not in Pia, The Private Case or Rose.

[PERCEAU, Louis]. Alexandre de Verineau. LES PRIAPEES. Publiées Pour La Première Fois et Suivies de Notes Curieuses par Hepley [Perceau]. Erotopolis: Jean Chouard a l’Enseigne de “Priape Rubicond,” 1920. 8vo, 215pp. Original marbled wrappers, title label printed in back and red, 2 in. loss to damaged backstrip, spine splitting with signatures loosely intact,  $250. ¶ First Edition, limited to 350 copies, this being “Exemplaire No [inked]339,  Imprimé pour M [inked] Roger Devigne” hand-numbered and with a warm inscription by the author: “avec l’espoir que ce volume saura plaire du poète, au bibliophile et au curièux… En cordial hommage de l’auteur Louis Perceau (Alexandre de Vérineau - Hepley) Octobre 1924.” Roger Devigne (1885-1965) was an accomplished poet, musicologist and bibliophile whose works included Odor Marine, Amour de Musique and Amour de la Typographie. Pia 1092. Dutel II, 2263.

PERCIVAL, Kate (pseud.). THE LIFE AND AMOURS OF THE BEAUTIFUL, GAY, AND DASHING KATE PERCIVAL, The Belle of Delaware. Written by Herself. Voluptuous, Exciting, Amorous and Delighting. London-Paris: n.p., 1903. 2 vols, 150, 140pp. Original pale tan wrappers, printed in red and black, mildly soiled, minor wear to vol 1 spine extremities, occasional foxing, otherwise near fine. $100. ¶ Parisian reprint, c.1930, possibly by Duflou for Charles Hirsch, of the actual 1903 first edition probably printed by Renaudie for Leonard Smithers. Most likely an American original, the anonymous Yankee writer possesses no little talent. This copy from the estate of G. Legman. Scarce. Kearney, Private Case 1421. Rose 2638. Mendes 151-B.

PIA, Pascal. LES LIVRES DE L’ENFER. Bibliographie critique des ouvrages erotiques dans leurs differentes editions du XVI seicle a nos jours. Paris: C. Coulet et A. Faure, 1978. 2 vols, 8vo, wrappers, very good. $150. ¶ First Edition.

PINELLI, Bartolomeo. MITOLOGIA ILLUSTRATA. Cum introduzione e testo descritivo di Angelo de Gubernatis. Riservatis i diritti di traduzione del texto e riproduzione delle tavole. Rome: G. Maussier & F.O. Maruca, 1895. 3 vols, folio, 237 of 252 plates, matching leaves of letterpress. 3 cloth portfolios, protective wrappers within portfolios. Some wear to cloth & protective wrappers, plates fine, overall very good. $300. ¶ Attractive set of semi-erotic ink wash plates, reproduced in collotype, illustrating themes from classical literature.

PIRON, Alexis. OEUVRES BADINES. Précédées d’une Étude Bio-Bibliographique de Fernand Mitton Paris: Aux Editions d’Art de L’Intermédiaire du Bibliophile, 1928. 12mo, xxv, (1), (2), 214, (4 contents), (10 colophon) pp., 4 (of 6) engravings. Contemporary three-quarter green morocco, marbled boards, gilt lettering and decoration, teg, original wrapper spine preserved, lacks two of six called-for engravings, otherwise near fine.  $100. ¶ Limited to 1000 copies, of which copies 26-1000 are printed on fine Annam de Rives paper, with [4 of 6 here present] dry point etchings by Léon Courbouleix. This is copy no.50. Piron (1689-1773), a witty poet, playwright, and enemy of Voltaire, is remembered for Les Fils Ingrats (1789) and Arlequiin Deucalion (1722). Oeuvres Badines was first published postumously in 1796. This edition not listed in any of the standard references. Scarce.

PIRON, M. [Alexis]. ODE A PRIAPE. Orné de Vingt eaux-fortes originales. Paris: n.p. [Maurice Duflou], 1927. 8vo, 99, (1)pp, unsewn, 6 explicitly engraved plates 14 explicit text engravings. Blind flapped wrappers with neatly inked author and title to spine, glassine dust jacket, slipcase, wrappers mildly foxed, otherwise internally fine in very good glassine within fairly good slipcase. $400. ¶ Limited Edition of 350, this being copy no. 29 on Rives. A most attractive and rare edition of Piron’s classic collection of erotic poetry, the copy of G. Legman who in a small note identifies the uncredited artist as André Collot. The engravings are delightfully and rather satirically explicit, some strongly anti-clerical, a few featuring a very well-endowed swain who appears clueless as to what to do with his asset, one with rats who appear to be escaping the feminine cavern, post-coitus; etc. Not in Pia, nor Bibliothéque National; not in KVK. OCLC notes only two copies: Waseda University (Japan) and Univ. of Illinois. No auction records. The first copy to come to market since 1987. Quite scarce. Dutel II, 2073.

PLENCK, Joseph Jacob von. DE’ MORBI VENEREI DOTTRINA. Venice: Francesco di Noccolo’ Pezzana, 1793. 12mo, 235pp. Quarter calf over marbled boards, spine blocked in gilt. Boards scuffed, repairs to A12-13 (affecting about 25 words of text), otherwise a very good, fresh copy. $125. ¶ Third edition in Italian, first published in Latin in 1779. This thorough classification of venereal diseases offers dozens of cures, and the last third of the work is specifically on the application of mercury. Joseph Jacob von Plenck (1738-1807) was professor of anatomy and surgery at the University of Turnau. His writings were generally compendiums of medical knowledge, but his Doctrina de Morbis Cutaneis (1776) was, until the time of Willan, “the greatest authority on dermatology” (Garrison-Morton 3982). Kiefer 448 (second ed.). NUC cites four copies of the first edition and no others.

POLIGNAC, Madame [Yolande-Martine-Gabrielle de Polastron duchesse] de FACETIES REVOLUTIONNAIRES. Le Boudoir, La Maladie, Confession et Repentir,