Beschreibung:

[EROTICA] [CHORIER, NICOLAS]. Le Meursius Francois, ou lAcademie des dames. Cythere: 1782 [but likely Paris: Cazin, circ... Cythere: 1782 [but likely Paris: Cazin, circa 1800]. Three volumes bound as two, period French tree calf, spines gilt. 5 1/8 x 3 1/4 inches (13 x 18 cm); 184 pp.; 156, 140 pp., with engraved frontispiece and twelve erotic plates, as called-for. The second volume rebacked retaining the original spine, some occasional foxing and spotting throughout, including plates. The Academie des dames was first published about 1660, spuriously attributed to Sigea, a maid of honor in the court of Lisbon, and purportedly translated into Latin by Johannes Meursius, a Dutch humanist scholar of some note. This history was a complete fiction; the work was penned by Nicolas Chorier, a historian and lawyer in Grenoble, who served as a prosecutor for King Louis XIV. It was circulated in manuscript as a libertine text, and was printed several times, always (because of its illicit nature) under false imprints. The work consists of seven dialogues between Tullia and Ottavia, in which the older woman initiates the younger in the sexual arts. All early editions are rare; this was a book that was read enthusiastically, and when found, it is frequently missing plates. Cohen-De Ricci 240; Nordmann 17. C