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Lot 231•
ARISTOTLE'S MASTER-PIECE Aristotle's Master-piece, or, The Secrets of Generation displayed in all the parts thereof, . Containing 1. The Signs of Barrenness. 2. The Way of Getting a Boy or Girl. 3. Of the Likeness of Children to Parents.... 5. Of Monstrous Births, and the reasons thereof.... 7. The Prejudice of unequal Matches.... 9. The Cause and Cure of Green-sickness. 10. A Discourse of Maiden-heads.... 12. Directions and Cautions to Midwifes... 14. The Fabrick of the Womb. 15. The Use and Action of the Genitals. 16 Signs of Conception, and whether of a Male or Female... 18. Instructions for Women with Child. 19. For preventing Miscarriage. 20. For Women in Child-bed. 21. Of ordering New-born Infants, and many other very useful Particulars. To which is added a Word of Advice to both Sexes in the Act of Copulation, and the Pictures of several Monstrous Births, Printed, and are to be Sold at the Hand and Scepter near Temple-Bar, 1702
4 December 2019, 11:00 GMT
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £2,805 inc. premium
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ARISTOTLE'S MASTER-PIECE
Aristotle's Master-piece, or, The Secrets of Generation displayed in all the parts thereof, . Containing 1. The Signs of Barrenness. 2. The Way of Getting a Boy or Girl. 3. Of the Likeness of Children to Parents.... 5. Of Monstrous Births, and the reasons thereof.... 7. The Prejudice of unequal Matches.... 9. The Cause and Cure of Green-sickness. 10. A Discourse of Maiden-heads.... 12. Directions and Cautions to Midwifes... 14. The Fabrick of the Womb. 15. The Use and Action of the Genitals. 16 Signs of Conception, and whether of a Male or Female... 18. Instructions for Women with Child. 19. For preventing Miscarriage. 20. For Women in Child-bed. 21. Of ordering New-born Infants, and many other very useful Particulars. To which is added a Word of Advice to both Sexes in the Act of Copulation, and the Pictures of several Monstrous Births, woodcut frontispiece, title within rule border, 6 woodcut illustrations (that on the final leaf H12 a duplicate of the frontispiece image of "a Maid all hairy, and an infant that was black by the imagination of their Parents"), small loss to blank inner margin of frontispiece, last leaf near detached, contemporary calf over pasteboards, worn with loss and old paper repairs, 12mo, Printed, and are to be Sold at the Hand and Scepter near Temple-Bar, 1702
Footnotes
RARE edition of Aristotle's Masterpiece. ESTC records a 1702 edition printed "for B.H." (U.S. National Library of Medicine copy only), and one copy of each of two editions printed, as ours, "at the Hand and Scepter" in 1692 and 1700. This copy collates [8], 183, [1]. First published in 1684 all early editions are very scarce, presumably due to the book's risque subject matter of women's bodies, sex, and pregnancy, which led it to be sold by "country peddlers and in general stores and taverns; regular booksellers seldom advertised it, though they usually had it under the counter" (The Library Company of Philadelphia, 'Treasures', online catalogue). The attribution to Aristotle is totally spurious and was probably a vain attempt to give the work some measure of respectability; but although it was effectively banned until the mid-twentieth century, the prohibition didn't keep it from circulating. Such enduring popularity was partly due to the practical advice on pregnancy and the care of infants, and partly to its rather sensational descriptions of the sexual act and forms of monstrosity.