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EROTICA
/ SEX
[
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BAD SEX?!
(Award Winners, “X-RATED”)! (Literary Review). We find ourselves with a gathering of (at this writing) 13 novels, all save one in first editions or first American editions (various places, various publishers, 19952009), each being a winner of
the Literary Review’s Bad Sex in Fiction award. Presented since 1993, this recognizes the year's worst, most risible sex scene in a contemporary novel, and is one British book award almost no one wants to win. (Iain Hollingswood, accepting the trophy in 2006, said he hoped to win it every year.)
All books are in very good to fine condition; individual notes apply.
Click here to search our database for them. As keyword phrase, use: BAD SEX.

20th-Century Fine-Press Printing . . .
of a 16th-Century Edition . . .
of an Ancient Greek Romance . . .
Achilles Tatius. The loves of Clitophon and Leucippe translated from the Greek of Achilles Tatius by William Burton reprinted for the first time from a copy now unique. New York: Bernard Guilbert Guerney, 1923. Folio (30.5 cm, 12"). xxxi, [9], 152, [6] pp.
$175.00
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First printing of this edition of what's sometimes spoken of as a sort of protonovel; based on Thomas Creede's 1597 printing of the first English translation, it is here edited by Stephen Gaselee and H.F.B. Brett-Smith. The volume was printed at Stratford-upon-Avon by the Shakespeare Head Press, on Batchelor's Kelmscott handmade paper with untrimmed edges; the title-page is printed in red and black.
This is
numbered copy 459 of a total of 503 printed (394 for sale in Great Britain, 104 for sale in America, and 5 special copies on vellum), signed B.G.G. on the limitation.
Publisher's quarter tan cloth and brown paper–covered sides, front cover and spine each with printed paper label; corners bumped, spine darkened, spine label chipped. Pages clean; edges deckle with a very few signatures uncut. (33816)

Erotic Letters Classic Greek PLANTIN PRESS
Aristaenetus. [title-page in Greek, transliterated as] Aristainetou epistolai erotikai. tinà ton palaion heroon epitaphia. E bibliotheca C.V. Ioan. Sambuci. Antuerpiae: Ex officina Christophori Plantini, 1566. 4to (20.5 cm; 8"). 95, [1 (blank)] pp.
$2750.00
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Editio princeps of this late fifth / early sixth century collection of love/erotic letters. Both Voet and Brunet attribute them to Aristaenetus because the first is addressed by him to Philokalos; it is entirely possible, however, that the array are from different authors. Brunet says, “Ce lettres sur les aventures amoureuses racontees quelquefois d'une maniere assez libre.”
The text was edited from a manuscript in his personal collection by János Zsámboki (a.k.a., Johannes Sambucus), the Hungarian humanist scholar (1531–84) whose library formed the basis for the manuscript collection of the Austrian National Library.
Printed at the Plantin Press entirely in Greek (except for the imprint information), using Greek type commissioned from Robert Granjon, this bears one of the variant Plantin printer's devices on the title-page. It was printed with guide letters, although none have been supplied in manuscript by a scribe.
Evidence of readership: Scattered marginalia in Greek and Latin, sometimes correcting a word in text or expanding on same; other times citing a page in a different book.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Voet 593; Graesse, Trésor de Livres Rares, I, 204; Brunet, I, 448; Schweiger, I, 44; Index Aurel. 107.600; Adams A1692. Surprisingly not in Legrand, Bibliographie Hellenique. Disbound; now in modern wrappers. A very nice, clean copy with occasional light age-toning. (37768)

Milkmaids,
Bathing Beauties,
Muses,
Etc.
Bamlach,
Christian.
Pudelnakerd erotische Szenen aus der Gründerzeit. Dortmund: Harenberg,
© 1981. 12mo (17.5 cm, 6.9"). 155, [5] pp.; illus.
$45.00
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Early edition: Remarkable collection of female nude photographs dating from the turn of the (20th) century, with an afterword by Bamlach. This is no. 246 in the series Die bibliophilen Taschenbücher, “pocket books for bibliophiles.”
Publisher's yellow bookcloth wrappers, front wrapper with affixed photographic label. Very clean and crisp. (30630)

Asceticism or Arousal?
Boileau, Jacques; François Granet, ed. & trans. Histoire des flagellans, ou l'on fait voir le bon & le mauvais usage des flagellations parmi les Chrétiens, par des preuves tirées de l'Ecriture Sainte, des peres de l'Eglise, des papes, des conciles, & des auteurs profanes. Amsterdam: Chez Henry du Sauzet, 1732. 12mo (17.5 cm, 6.89"). xxxii, 306, [10 (index)] pp.
$225.00
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This disapproving account of voluntary flagellation appears here in its revised and corrected second French edition, following the first of 1701 and the original Latin of 1700. Boileau was one of the earliest authors to connect the ancient religious practice directly to erotic motivations and concludes with a medical assessment of such deviancy including a final proverb: “Le foüet est pour le Cheval, le mords pour l'Asne, & la verge pour le dos de l'Insensé.”
Although some sources claim Boileau translated his own text into French, the BNF considers that a false attribution and credits Abbé François Granet with both editing and translating the text. This version, by Dutch printer du Sauzet, features a title-page printed in red and black and simple but elegant typesetting.
Binding: Contemporary calf, spine with gilt-stamped title and date, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; covers framed in triple gilt fillets, turn-ins with a gilt roll. Handsome marbled endpapers and all edges gilt.
Signed binding, with front free endpaper stamped “Koehler.”
Provenance: Front free endpaper with garter-design ex-libris rubber-stamp of G. Manessier. Later in the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).
Bound as above, leather scuffed and rubbed. Small area of worming to outer margins of some leaves, not touching text. Pages gently age-toned, otherwise clean.
A pleasing, elegant little volume. (40413)

Laugh a Little — Cringe a Little — Carrington Curiosa
Cabanès, Augustin. The secret cabinet of history peeped into by a doctor. Paris: Charles Carrington, 1897. 8vo. x pp., [2[ ff., 3–239, vii, [1 (blank) pp., [4 (ads)] ff.
$100.00
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W.C. Costello's translation of Cabanès' Cabinet secret de l'histoire (première série), the sole edition in English and an interesting, if at times gruesome, complication of medical anecdotes, medical humor, celebrity lore, and titillation.
Cabanès (1862–1928) was a medical doctor, historian, and successful writer of a goodly number of works of fiction and history, with a subspecialty of historical medical mysteries. Carrington was a leading British publisher (“abroad”) of late-Victorian and Edwardian pornography/erotica for “bibliophiles,” much of it flagellatory; there have been significant essays on him and his works, but
Wikipedia provides one irresistible sentence: “Carrington went blind as a result of syphilis and the last few years of his life were spent in poverty as his mistress stole his valuable collection of rare books.”
The chapters in this publication are: A youthful indiscretion of Louis XIV, The fistula of a great king, The maladies of Louis XV, The semi-impotency of Louis XVI, The first pregnancy of Marie-Antoinette, Louis XVI in private life, One of the judges of Marie-Antoinette: the surgeon Souberbielle, What was Marat's disease, Talleyrand and the doctors, The accouchement of the empress Marie-Louise, The ancestors of Marshal Mac-Mahon, and Gambetta's eye.
Nicely printed, with title-page in black and red and text block issued untrimmed, this is a copy of the trade edition: There was a deluxe issue on Japan vellum limited to 30 copies.
Provenance: “Virginia Pritchard Hilton-Green, my father's book.”
Publisher's blue cloth stamped in blind. Minor rubbing; small tear at base of front joint (outside). Inside clean. (35372)

Adventures
of an Unfortunate Spaniard
Céspedes y Meneses, Gonzalo de. Poema tragico del español Gerardo, y desengaño del amor lascivo. Primera, y segunda parte. Madrid: Don Pedro Marin, 1788. 4to (20.8 cm, 8.4"). [4], 447, [1] pp.
$975.00
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A popular, oft-translated and much reprinted picaresque novel, from the pen of a Spanish Golden Age novelist and historian. It tells the story of the protagonist's desperate love for four women! John Fletcher used the work as source material for both The Spanish Curate and The Maid in the Mill. This is a revised edition, following the first of 1615; it is not widely held in U.S. institutions.
Brunet, I, 1756; Palau 54187. Contemporary treed sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-ruled bands; binding lightly scuffed (most notably at spine), spine with tiny pinholes, front joint just starting from head. Front pastedown with attractive small ticket of a prominent Madrid bookseller. Pages generally lightly age-toned with scattered faint spotting; some leaves browned. (29248)
This appears in the HISPANIC MISCELLANY click here.

“A Subject of Intense Interest to the Philanthropist & the Man of Science”
Ellis, William Charles. A treatise on the nature, symptoms, causes, and treatment of insanity. London: Samuel Holdsworth (R. Clay, Printer), 1838. 8vo (23 cm, 9.1"). viii, 344 pp. (frontis. lacking).
$800.00
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First edition: an exploration of insanity from a pioneer of psychological medicine, complete with “practical observations on lunatic asylums, and a description of the pauper lunatic asylum for the county of Middlesex, at Hanwell, with a detailed account of its management.” Ellis (1780–1839) dedicated his life to curing his patients rather than just treating them, and also promoted the idea of work as a means of treatment through his various institutional appointments. This text contains extensive commentary from contemporary sources, including
lengthy notes on masturbation as a cause of insanity and a section detailing visible signs of suicidal tendencies.
Provenance: A bookplate of M.H. Ranney, Resident Physician for Blackwell's Island Asylum — the first mental institution in New York City — is attached to the front fly-leaf. An armorial bookplate of the Grosvenor Library of Buffalo, New York, dated 1859, appears on the front pastedown, with an accession number stamped in red on the title-page verso and an insert detailing “penalty for injuries to property” on the back pastedown. Most recently in the library of Robert L. Sadoff, M.D., one of the nation's leading forensic psychiatrists and a director of Penn's Center for Studies in Social-Legal Psychiatry, sans indicia.
NSTC 2E8170. On Ellis, see: Oxford DNB (online). Green publisher's cloth, spine lettered in gilt and ruled in blind, covers framed in blind double fillets around an arabesque stamp; rubbed, spine gently sunned, covers spotted, bottom of back joint (outside) open, top of spine pulling. Folding frontispiece lacking as above, a few leaf edges uneven from opening, one small marginal hole. Light age-toning with a handful of spots or stains. Provenance indicia as above, a few pages with marginal accents or short notes in pencil; a “good used” copy with very interesting provenance. (39709)

“This Kind of Composition Is Not So New to Our Language
as It Has Been Considered”
Fennor, William. Cornu-copiae. Pasquil's night-cap: Or, antidot for the head-ache. [London]: [colophon: C. Whittingham, at the Chiswick Press, 1819]. 8vo (20.2 cm, 7.9"). viii, 119, [1] pp.
$175.00
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Chiswick Press reprint of a delightfully filthy and humorous English poem discussing adultery, originally attributed to Nicholas Breton or Samuel Rowlands. This edition's text comes from a combination of those printed in 1612 and 1623, whose differences the introduction notes are “little more than corrections of orthography and punctuation.” A printer's device appears on the final page.
Provenance: Armorial bookplate of Ezra Otis Swift on the front pastedown; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
NSTC 2B47098 & 2P5931. Quarter black roan in imitation of morocco and dark pink paper–covered boards, gilt lettering on spine; rubbed with some loss of leather and paper. Edges uncut. Light age-toning with a handful of marginal stains. Bookplate and label as above; bookplate offsetting onto free endpaper.
A scandalous historical poem from a respectable press. (39422)

“Sweet Love, Do Not Frown, But Put off Thy Gown”
Floethe, Richard, illus. Cupid's horn-book: Songs and ballads of marriage and of cuckoldry. Mt. Vernon, NY: Airmont Publishing, 1936. 8vo (25.8 cm, 10.125"). 150, [2] pp.; illus.
$50.00
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“Written by various hands and embellished with cuts by Richard Floethe”: Merrily bawdy verses, progressing from the sensual aspects of wedded bliss to the riskier pleasures of extramarital affairs. Only 390 copies were printed — by Peter and Edna Beilenson of the Peter Pauper Press, in modest disguise — of this celebration of lawful and lawless carnality.
Publisher's quarter floral-patterned paper with woodgrain-patterned paper–covered sides, spine with black leather title-label stamped in silver, in original matching slipcase; one corner bumped and spine extremities with small chips, slipcase showing moderate shelfwear and with one upper edge split and repaired with archival tissue. Pages clean. Internally very appealing despite minor external wear. (39805)

THE KINSEY REPORT
Kinsey, Alfred. C.; Wardell B. Pomeroy; & Clyde E. Martin. Sexual behavior in the human male. Philadelphia & London: W. B. Saunders Co., 1948. 8vo. xv, [1], 804 pp.
$150.00
First edition of the revolutionary and highly influential “Kinsey Report”—a landmark in the study of human sexuality and one of the 100 most important science books in the 20th century.
Very good, in publisher's cloth. Front free endpaper torn out. Preliminary pages with a few light creases in foremargins probably created from paper clips being fastened to them at one time. (10711)
For MEDICINE, click here.

One of 2000 Printed — First British Edition
Lawrence, D.H. The man who died. London: Martin Secker, 1931. 8vo (25.5 cm, 10.1"). 97, [1] pp.
$150.00
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First British edition of Lawrence's novella, also known as “The Escaped Cock.” Originally printed in Forum magazine in 1928, and then in its first book form by Black Sun Press in Paris in 1929, this is a quintessentially Lawrentian tale in which Jesus, having survived crucifixion, discovers his sexual potency and joy in earthly life with the aid of a priestess of Isis. (About the alternative title, here; yes, there is a real bird involved.)
The present example is
one of 2000 copies printed, with the type afterwards distributed.
Jackson, D.H. Lawrence Handbook, 24; Roberts A50c. Publisher's olive green cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped phoenix vignette, spine with gilt-stamped title; dust wrapper lacking, spine slightly sunned, spine extremities and lower corners rubbed. Free endpapers with offsetting(?) and front one with upper outer corner torn away; text gently age-toned, with small areas of staining to two pages. Showing signs of wear, this is yet a solid, attractive, and pleasing copy. (33546)

Whip &/or Be Whipped
Lunas, Carmencita de las [pseud. of Alexander Whitelaw Robertson Trocchi]. Thongs. Paris: Olympia Press, 1956. 12mo (17.8 cm, 7"). 189, [1] pp.
$250.00
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First edition: Number 25 in the “Traveller's Companion” series. Scottish-born Beat author Trocchi (1925–84) was an avant-garde existentialist whose novel Young Adam was turned into a 2003 film starring Ewan McGregor and Tilda Swinton; a number of his more explicitly pornographic works were published by Maurice Girodias's Olympia Press, which specialized in providing the types of books that would be automatically banned in Britain and the United States. The present example is the transgressively erotic tale of Gertrude, a girl from the slums of Glasgow who remakes herself as Carmencita and becomes the Grand Painmistress of a secret sadomasochistic order structured along the lines of the Catholic Church, eventually going willingly to her own crucifixion. The preliminary chapter offers the pretense that the work is Gertrude's own memoir (early portions feature heavy Glasgow slang), and is signed “F.L.” — i.e., Frances Lengel, Trocchi's favored pseudonym for Olympia Press publications.
Uncommon: WorldCat locates
only two U.S. institutional holdings.
Publisher's printed green paper wrappers; spine and edges lightly worn, back wrapper with affixed Olympia Press paper price label, partially torn away. Two leaves with lower outer corners proud and now ragged; five leaves with small holes near center, touching letters without loss of sense. Overall a very reasonably fresh copy. (35684)

A Mash-up of Attitudes — A Catalogue of Erotic Options
Member of the Royal Asiatic Society. Marriage ceremonies & priapic rites in India & the East. No place: Privately Printed, 1909. Sq. 8vo. [1] f., 107, [1] pp., [1] f.
$50.00
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“Printed for private circulation only.” Classic study of marriage, sex, manners, customs, and social life in India in the 19th century.
Publisher's tan linen shelf-back with rust-colored boards. Boards lightly chipped. A very good copy. (36591)

Miller's Second Novel
Miller, Henry. Black spring. Paris: The Obelisk Press, 1945. 8vo (19.2 cm, 7.56"). 269, [3] pp.
$150.00
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First post-war edition, the third edition printed by Obelisk, and the fourth overall,
of Miller's second published novel.According to Miller's bibliographers, the 1945 printing uses the same plates as the 1938
edition, explaining why the copyright reads “Reprinted October 1938,” confusing this with the
second Obelisk printing. “The actual date of publication is 1945 and is documented in a letter
Miller wrote to Ben Abramson in August of that year” (Shifreen & Jackson). Like the copy seen
by Shifreen and Jackson, the present copy's leaves vary in size, so that many are shorter than
others.
Jack Kahane founded the Obelisk Press at Paris in 1929 to publish illicit English-language books like this free from legal censure.
Shifreen & Jackson A12e.
Publisher's steel gray wrappers with white boxes lettered in black; faded and
shelf-worn, paper on the lower spine cracked to reveal quires beneath. Age-toning resulting from
poor paper quality, as usual for this edition; sewing brittle. Far from pristine; definitely showing
evidence of its readership. (30196)

The
Book That Defined
Miller's Career
Miller,
Henry. Tropic of Cancer.
Paris: The Obelisk Press, January 1939. 8vo (19.3 cm, 7.6"). [1-6], 7-[318],
[2] pp.
$225.00
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Fifth Obelisk printing of the book that “afforded [Miller] his literary voice”
(Shifreen & Jackson).“I start tomorrow on the Paris book: first person, uncensored, formless — fuck
everything!” So wrote Miller to Emil Schnellock in 1931. Three years later, after some financial
difficulty, Jack Kahane published Tropic of Cancer at Obelisk in Paris with money Anaïs Nin
borrowed from a psychoanalyst. It is the story of Miller's first year in Paris, living hand-to-mouth
as a struggling writer.
This edition is the same as the fourth edition in all but wrappers (and the
same as the third in pagination, except for necessary variations on the copyright
page: “Fifth printing” and “Reprinted January 1939"); our
copy's
binding
is blue and white, lettered in black, not the light green wrappers
lettered in darker green called for by Shifreen & Jackson.
Jack Kahane founded the Obelisk Press at Paris in 1929 to publish illicit English-language books like this free from legal censure.
Shifreen & Jackson A9h.
Binding as above; wrappers faded and creased along the spine, upper joints
cracking. A copy that clearly was read more than a few times.
(30191)

Ovid's “Art of Love” in GERMAN — Limited Edition — Slevogt's Embellishments
Ovidius
Naso, Publius. Des Publius Ovidius Naso Lehrbuch der Liebe.
Berlin: Paul Cassirer, 1921. Folio (31.9 cm, 12.75"). 90, [4] pp.; illus.
$975.00
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Attractive edition of the Ars Amatoria translated into German by Ernst Hohenemser. The title-page and the charming, individual, and in a few cases mildly erotic head- and tail-pieces were lithographed by Max Slevogt, a notable member of the Berlin Secession. Publisher Cassirer was an art dealer and editor who actively promoted and supported artists of the Secession and the French Impressionist School.
This is numbered copy 201 of 320 printed, of the eighteenth work to come from
Cassirer's Pan-Presse. The Lehrbuch is not widely institutionally held
in the U.S.; WorldCat finds
only
three American locations.
Publisher's half cream pigskin and light grey/tan cloth, rich
eggplant endpapers, front cover with gilt-stamped vignette and spine with
gilt-stamped title; bottom edge and corners rubbed or frayed with attendant
soiling, front cover with area of faint staining. Interior clean and bright. (28154)
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, click here.

For BOOKS IN GERMAN, click here.

LEC Plato: “Love, Friendship, & Hiccups”
Plato. Dialogues on love and friendship. New York: Printed at the Press of A. Colish for the members of The Limited Editions Club, 1968. Folio (28 cm, 11"). xiv, [3], 208, [2] pp.; illus.
$100.00
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The three dialogues that form the present volume — the “Lysis,” the “Symposium,” and the “Phaedrus” — constitute nearly all of Plato's ideas on the subject of love and friendship, and are here translated from the Greek by Benjamin Jowett. The introductory materials consist of a preface by Whitney J. Oates and three prefatory analyses (one preceding each dialogue) by Jowett, who also contributed brief running summaries of the text, which are printed in the margins.
Eugene Karlin (who signed the colophon) created the
delicate fine-pen illustrations; of these, 20 are full-page and 9 are in-text. The drawings of lovers engaged in the act of lovemaking are both tasteful and erotic; they are mostly heterosexual, with one — non-explicit — depicting two men). Robert L. Dothard designed the edition, which is limited to 1500 copies (of which this is numbered copy 1002), using a monotype Emerson font; the binding is quarter goatskin vellum with the title stamped in gold on a brown skiver label, and the sides are Swedish tan paper with a gold-stamped design on the front. The appropriate LEC newsletter is laid in.
Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 409. Binding as above, in original glassine dust wrapper and slipcase; wrapper with lower corners chipped, slipcase with minor rubbing to gilt spine label, vellum spine with a few tiny brown spots (possibly as issued — the club newsletter for this volume says “Goats are real individuals, and that goes for their skins too; connoisseurs in such matters prize the mottled and stained appearance, which the skins come by quite naturally”). The whole generally clean and unworn; pages fresh and crisp. A beautiful copy. (30460)

Limited Edition — 500 Copies — Art-Deco Illustrations
Prévost, l'Abbé. Manon Lescaut. London: Geoffrey Bles, 1928. Sm. folio (32.3 cm, 12.75"). [8], ix, [1], 141, [3] pp.; 12 col. plts.
$150.00
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The classic tale of passion and inconstancy, illustrated with 12 color plates and numerous large in-text line drawings by John Austen — with this being the sole edition of Austen's Art Deco–influenced designs. This is numbered copy 212 of
500 numbered copies printed, and is
signed by the illustrator. (An additional 20 copies, not for sale, were lettered.)
Among other things, this book is a bonanza for lovers of
COSTUME!
Publisher's quarter vellum and light blue buckram sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; vellum darkened and spotted, sides with mild wear and discolorations; front hinge (inside) slightly tender. Front free endpaper with a very faded (all but illegible) early inked inscription; margins with scattered light smudges, pages and plates otherwise clean. A volume clearly pored over . . . (35542)

The Psychedelic Venus Church — Berkeley, 1973
Psychedelic Venus Church, Berkeley, CA. Nelly Heathen. Berkeley, CA: Psychedelic Venus Church, 1973. Folio. 24 pp.
[SOLD]
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Apparently one-shot publication of a church devoted to neo-paganism with sexual orgies as a religious practice: cover photo depicts a couple in a sexual position on an altar. Line drawings represent both straight and gay couplings. The Psychedelic Venus Church was founded by Jefferson “F***” Poland. Includes material on the Maithuna Rite, Phallic worship, Yoga, Moon Magic, Sri Willie Minzey who was an initiate into the Hindu Shiva sect and was sentenced to 10 years in California prison on possession and distribution of marijuana; also history and bylaws of the Psyven Church. Editors and others associated with this publications include Rev. Mother Boats, Susan EliSabeth, John & Steve Gaylove, Cecily Burke, Bear, Rhyder McClure, et al.
Printed as a tabloid, on newsprint paper, folded; illustrations, photos, evenly toned, otherwise very good. (41126)

CASANOVA Beyond His Exploitatious Exploits
Ricci, Seymour de. Jacques Casanova de Seingalt: An address to the Philobiblon Club of Philadelphia, 24 May, 1923. Philadelphia: Privately Printed [for The Philobiblon Club], 1923. 8vo (22 cm; 8.5"). 24 pp.
$22.50
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The great bibliographer and friend of Dr. Rosenbach (and of many American, British, and French bibliophiles and booksellers) entertained the gentlemen of the Philobiblon Club with a good and sympathetic account of Count Casanova, the publishing history of his memoirs, and the fate of the manuscript of the same.
New. Publisher's blue cloth shelfback and French swirl marbled paper over boards; white paper label on front cover. (35760)

“Improved Taste of Modern Time Must
Question the Crudities of Former Days”
Rocco, Sha [pseud. of Abisha Shumway Hudson]. The masculine cross and ancient sex worship. New York: Asa K. Butts & Co., 1874. 8vo (19 cm, 7.75"). 65, [7 (adv.)] pp.; illus.
$200.00
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First edition: A study of cruciform sexual symbolism in ancient religions, touching on Indian, Egyptian, Chinese, and other mythological connections to the shape of the cross. The volume is illustrated with in-text engravings of statues, relics, and other items, including the final chapter (“The Phallus in California,” about the results of the author's antiquity-hunting expedition in Stanlislaus County, CA), which features a representation of what the author says is misidentified as an “Indian pestle.”
Hudson was a Massachusetts-born physician and one of the founders of the Keokuk Medical College; his publisher here was the notable freethinker and
contraception advocate Asa K. Butts, who has supplied several pages of advertisements for some of his other publications.
Publisher's blue cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title and fish vignette with blind-stamped decorative borders; spine slightly darkened, small spots of light discoloration, extremities rubbed. Sewing just barely starting to loosen but holding; pages clean.
A more than decent copy of this interesting and, shall we say, “highly personal” work. (35139)
A Trio of Books on
MARRIAGE
Sánchez, Tomás. Disputationum de sancto matrimonii sacramento...editio
haec postrema superiorum auctoritate correcta. Antverpiae: Apud Martinum Nutium, 1626 [colophon: Ex typographia Henrici Aertsi]. Folio (36 cm, 14.2"). †6††4A–Z6Aa–Ss 6Tt4AA–ZZ6AAa–KKk6LLl 4AAA–ZZZ6AAAa–LLLl6a–e6f4 (-f4 [blank]); [20], 500, 404, 408, [66 (index)] pp.
$600.00
Early edition, following the first complete printing of 1605 (preceded by a partial printing in 1602), of this sometimes controversial, oft-reprinted treatise on marriage, morality, and sexual sin. Each of the three books has its own separate title-page. Brunet calls this “un ouvrage célèbre, à cause de quelques passages singuliers qui s’y trouvent,”while Englisch notes that “Dieses Werk enthalt alle moglichen Variationen uber die Geschlechtssunde in umstandlichster und eingehendster Behandlung,” and Sommervogel simply states that the work caused its author “quelques chagrins” despite the purity and austerity of his personal life (a Jesuit from the time he was 17 years old, the Cordova-born Sánchez was said by his spiritual director to have “carried his baptismal innocence to the grave,” according to the Catholic Encyclopedia online).
Brunet, V, 115; De Backer-Sommervogel, VII, 532; Englisch, Der erotischen literatur, 145; Palau 294482. Contemporary alum-tawed pigskin, tooled in blind, spine with inked title; binding darkened and scuffed, with clasps now lacking and with leather torn over head and foot of spine (lacking at foot, with underlying vellum showing). Title-page with inked ownership inscriptions dated 1715, later institutional stamp in lower margin, and faint shadows of pencilled notations; front pastedown and one text page also with institutional stamps. Small spots of worming to lower margins of a number of leaves. Pages age-toned, with some instances of marginalia and underlining in early inked hands and occasionally in pencil (a handful of leaves in part III extensively annotated within text); a few spots of foxing, and one leaf with paper flaws partially obscuring a few letters. A big, solid volume. (14459)
For CATHOLICA, click here.

“Shakspearean” Inspiration? — A Special Copy
[Singer, Samuel Weller, ed.]. Shakspeare's [sic] jest book. Chiswick: A. & G. Way, prs., 1814. 8vo (20 cm, 7.875"). xxxii, 116, [2] pp.
$550.00
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First appearance of this cleverly marketed and in fact valuable Chiswick Press reprint of a humorous Elizabethan short story collection: Tales, and Quicke Answeres, Very Mery, and Pleasant to Rede from the edition printed by Berthelet around 1535. There were two subsequent volumes edited by Singer under the general title of “Shakspeare's Jest Book” and published in 1815 and 1816.
The introduction here explains the text's Shakespearean connection and origin story, with canvassing also of the editor's scholarly processes and his decisions to offer his tale with original orthography, in its full “licentiousness,” and with its original “moral reflections.” A short glossary of Elizabethan words is provided.
This is one of six copies printed on blue paper of an edition of 250 copies.
Provenance: Ca. 1930 bookplate of Henry Pennell Frank; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Late 19th-century half black morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spine lettered in gilt; blue endpapers; rubbed at corners and edges.
A testament to 19th-century Shakespeare mania. (40233)

“Shakspearean” Inspiration?
[Singer, Samuel Weller, ed.]. Shakspeare’s [sic] jest book. Chiswick: From the Press of C. Whittingham, 1814–15. 8vo (20 cm, 7.875"). xxxii, 116, [2], xi, [1], 26, [2], xxviii, 121, [3] pp.
$225.00
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Cleverly marketed and in fact valuable Chiswick Press reprint. of two humorous Elizabethan short story collections, first Tales, and Quicke Answeres, Very Mery, and Pleasant to Rede from the edition printed by Berthelet around 1535, and second A C. Mery Talys from John Rastell’s edition, printed about 1525. Singer had in 1814 issued the first title alone as Shakspeare’s Jest Book, believing it was quite probably a collection of facetiae drawn on for Much Ado about Nothing; then, in 1815, after a scholar had discovered the second work disguised within a pasteboard, he promptly
printed the two together to correct “the fallacy of our [first] gesture” — for, surely, the second was the referenced text!
This offering consists of the aforementioned two parts and
a supplement with 26 extra tales taken from a newly discovered (in 1815) edition printed in 1567 by H. Wykes of theTales, and Quicke Answeres. Each section has a separate title-page and introduction explaining its Shakespearean connection and origin story, with canvassing also of the editor’s scholarly processes and his decisions to offer his tales with original orthography, in their full “licentiousness,” and with their original “moral reflections.” A short glossary of Elizabethan words is provided, and the second preface is signed in type “S.W.S.,” i.e., Samuel Weller Singer.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
19th-century half black morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spine lettered in gilt, with differently patterned marbled endpapers and black silk placemarker, top edge gilt; rubbed at corners and edges. Light age-toning with very occasional off-setting and a few spots, light pencilling referencing a 1925 Goodspeed’s price on title-page.
A testament to 19th-century Shakespeare mania and a resonant, even cautionary tale for scholars of any ilk in any era. (37850)

Noted Christian Nativist Fans the Flames
Sparry, C. The illustrated Christian martyrology; being an authentic and genuine historical account of the principal persecutions against the church of Christ, in different parts of the world by pagans and papists. Philadelphia: Leary & Getz, 1854. 8vo (23.5 cm; 9.5"). Color frontis., 254 pp., [16] ff. (of publisher's ads), 23 color plts.
$550.00
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Charles Sparry was a virulent anti-Catholic “reverend,” author or compiler of several anti-Catholic books, editor of the short-lived periodical The North American Protestant magazine or the anti Jesuit, and an
accused purveyor of obscene literature.
The present martyrology, first printed in 1846, reached seven editions during the 19th century, four of them printed by Leary & Getz, the printing arm of the famous Philadelphia bookstore generally and simply known as “Leary's.” Not unexpectedly, the volume is wildly anti-Cathoic but is also an excellent example of mid-century American bookmaking in its publisher's binding, illustration, and method of printing.
The binding is the publisher's red roan in imitation of morocco. Both covers are gilt-stamped with a triple rule border at the board edges and gilt corner devices; in the center of each board is a gilt vignette of a martyrdom based on one of the plates in the text. All edges are gilt.
The illustrations are wood engravings, mostly unsigned, but a few signed “Lossing.” There are several in-text wood-engraved portraits and there are additionally
24 wood-engraved plates (including the frontispiece) that have been hand colored, probably by a stencil method.
The text is printed in double-column format from stereoplates, in roman type, with an interesting six-line capital at the beginning of each chapter.
Provenance: “Mamie C. Swinton, from 'Aunt Jennie,' August 1870.”
Binding as above, rubbed at board edges and joints (outside); top and bottom of spine pulled with loss of leather. Short tears in foremargins of final blank leaves; scattered foxing and some brown spotting. Over all, a good++ copy; a very good representative of
the genre, “ugly ideas got-up beautifully.” (37226)

Like Father / Like Son
Strozzi, Tito Vespasiano; Ercole Strozzi; Aldo Manuzio. Strozii poetae pater et filius. Parisiis: Ex officina Simonis Colinaei, 1530. 8vo (17.3 cm, 6.75"). [8], 256, [4] ff.
$2800.00
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First and only Colines edition from Italian Renaissance father and son poets, containing a dedication by Aldus Manutius to Lucrezia Borgia, an extensive table of contents, poems by Ercole Strozzi (1473–1508) followed by those of his father Tito Vespasiano Strozzi (1424–1505), and “Oratio tumultario habita à Coelio Calcagnino in funere Herculis Strozae.” The content covers a variety of themes — from the religious to the erotic — and formats, including numerous elegies and epitaphs.
The text is neatly printed in single columns of italic text, with a few uncompleted guide letters and initial letters in roman; the Colines “Tempus II” printer's device of Time with his scythe appears on the title-page, with the motto “Hanc aciem sola retundit virtus” on a ribbon over a cartouche containing the word “tempus.” The text was originally published by Aldus in 1513; Colines enhances the introduction with a 33-line epitaph to the poet.
Binding: 19th-century rather deeply diced calf; spine gilt-lettered, gilt-ruled with solid and dotted lines, and gilt-stamped with a central floral device in five compartments. Covers framed with a gilt rope and floral roll, board edges with a dash and dot roll in gilt, turn-ins gilt with a Greek key roll; Stormont marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, ribbon place marker.
Evidence of Readership: A reader has helpfully added inked marginal reference numbers approximately every eight lines, for ease of navigation, and entered one small correction in an early hand.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Schreiber, Colines, 68; Renouard, Simon de Colines, pp. 166–7; Moreau, Éditions parisiennes du XVI siècle, III, 2292; Adams S1957. Bound as above, gently rubbed with some loss of leather at corners; joints (outside) refurbished and front one beginning to crack but covers solidly attached. A few pencilled notes on endpapers; faint touches of hand-coloring on title-page and (perhaps) one leaf of text. Light age-toning with a handful of spots, three small marginal paper flaws including one to title-page; two other small holes and one repair. Provenance and readership markings as above, perhaps a third of the marginal numbers partially trimmed. A pleasurable book to hold or
use. (38144)

With Carefully Engraved & Labelled Illustrations
Venette, Nicolai. ... Abhandlung von Erzeugung der Menschen. Königsberg: Christoph Gottfried Eckart, 1738. 8vo (17 cm, 6.75"). Frontis., [16] ff., 546 pp., 10 leaves of plts. (various sizes).
$250.00
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On human reproduction, including a section on “Hermaphroditen.”
This edition not in Blake, NLM 18th Century. Contemporary half vellum with multi-color pastepaper on the boards. Internally very good. (39918)

TICE Illustrates
VOLTAIRE
Voltaire. Candide, or All for the best. New York: Bennett Libraries, 1927. 8vo (23 cm; 9.25"). 2 vols. in 1. 182 pp., [4] ff., color plates.
$725.00
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Sole edition illustrated by Clara Tice, the illustrations numbering ten, printed in color, and definitely of an erotic nature. This copy (no. 130) is one of 250 copies “on special deckle-edge Pannekoek paper.” The title-page, printed in black and red, announces this is an “Exact reprint of the earliest English text” and tells us that it was “printed in Holland by Joh. Enschede en Zonen for the Bennett Libraries, Inc.”
In the early decades of the 20th century, Tice was a sensation because of her provocative art and as the embodiment of bohemian Greenwich Village — gaining, indeed, the sobriquet “The Queen of Greenwich Village.”
Binding: Publisher's black goat, round spine with raised bands lettered in gilt and with a gilt-stamped female nude figure in center area of spine; front cover with two gilt-stamped reclining female nude figures reminiscent of those on big-rig mud guards! Elegant gilt turn-ins, top edge gilt and other edges deckle. Housed in a brown paper–covered open-back case.
Case rubbed but sound; binding as above with spine a little pulled, corners a little bumped, and front joint (outside) a little abraded. First leaves separated and tipped in; possibly, cancels? All illustrations eye-popping in several senses; all tissue guards present. (33447)
Westropp, Hodder Michael; & Charles Staniland Wake. Ancient symbol worship. Influence of the phallic idea in the religions of antiquity. New York: J.W. Bouton & London: Trübner & Co., 1874. 8vo (24.7 cm, 9.75"). 98, [6 (adv.)] pp.
$200.00
First edition: Two papers read before the Anthropological Society of London on 5 April, 1870, discussing artifacts and religious practices connected to various literal and allegorical phallic representations. The illustrations found in the second edition were issued there for the first time.
The advertisement leaves are devoted specifically to books of phallic subject matter.
NSTC 0803266; Allibone, Critical Dictionary, 1505. Publisher’s green cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped medallion, spine with gilt-stamped title; cloth rubbed at corners and pulled at spine extremities, board edges lightly discolored. Pencilled owner’s name in upper margin of title-page. Title-page and two others pressure-stamped; preface with inked annotation and stamped numeral. Pages slightly age-toned, else clean. (20486)
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