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The Golden Ass of Apuleius, Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis (124-170 AD), trans. & intro Francis D. Byrne (The Imperial Press[Charles Carrington?], London, n.d. [1904?], #257/650) 7.75" X 5.75", xlix+388pp., 1/4 maroon morrocco over marbled boards with gilt titles and 4 raised bands on spine, top edge gilt The Metamorphoses of Apuleius, which St. Augustine referred to as “The Golden Ass”, is the only Ancient Roman novel in Latin to survive in its entirety. The plot Lucius and his curiosity and insatiable desire to see and practice magic. While trying to perform a spell to transform into a bird, he is accidentally transformed into an ass. This leads to a long journey, literal and metaphorical, filled with in-set tales. He finally finds salvation through the intervention of the goddess Isis, whose cult he joins. The date of the original work is uncertain. Scholars are not sure if he wrote it in his youth or at the end of his life. He adapted the story from a Greek story written by Lucius of Patrae, however his original Greek text has long been lost. -
Metamorphoseon libri XV cum notis Th. Farnabii, P. Ovid Nasinis, (Paris, Pierre Esclassan, printed for Joan Blaeu, Amsterdam, 1763) 3.5″x5.75″, 380pp+2, full leather with gilt decorations, 5 raised bands,gilt titles on spine, marbled boards, very good condition for age, frontispiece presumably engraved by Joan Blaeu, some are fold-outs, text in Latin with numerous notes. Joan [Johannes] Blaeu (1596 - 1673) was a Dutch cartographer born in Alkmaar, the son of tne noted cartographer Willem Blaeu. Pierre Esclassan (1643?-1718) was a bookseller and printer. He was born in Garans, Toulouse, France and apprenticed with Claude Thiboust, eventually becoming a partner. He was imprisoned in 1674-75 for the printing and trade in prohibited books along with his brother and fellow printer Dominique Esclassan and accomplice Louis Prussurot. He was sentenced to a fine and a 9 banishment but then the same year pardoned by the court. He continued to work in association with Claude Thiboust and then 1694 Caude’s son, Claude-Louis Thiboust, until his death in 1718. Decorations on the front and back covers say "IESVS MARIA" which could possibly indicate that it is from Congrégation des Religeuses de Jésus-Marie (founded in 1815, in France by Claudina Thévenet) or possibly bound for Francisco de Jesus Maria Sarmento (1713-1790), (author, jurist, theologian) or someone from the Jesus Maria family originally from Coimbra, Portugal. More research would need to be done to determine the true meaning of the decoration. Ovid (Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō, 43BC – 17/18AD) was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature. Although Ovid enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime, in 8AD the emperor Augustus banished him to a remote province on the Black Sea, where he remained until his death. The first major Roman poet to begin his career during the reign of Augustus, Ovid is today best known for the Metamorphoses, a 15-book continuous mythological narrative written in the meter of epic, and for works in elegiac couplets such as Ars Amatoria ("The Art of Love") and Fasti. His poetry was much imitated during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and greatly influenced Western art and literature. The Metamorphoses remains one of the most important sources of classical mythology. The Metamorphoses (from Ancient Greek: μεταμορφώσεις: "Transformations") is an 8 AD Latin narrative poem by the Roman poet Ovid, considered his magnum opus. Comprising 11,995 lines, 15 books and over 250 myths, the Metamorphoses is comprehensive in its chronology, recounting the creation of the world to the death of Julius Caesar, which had occurred only a year before Ovid's birth; it has been compared to works of universal history, which became important in the 1st century BC. In spite of its apparently unbroken chronology, scholar Brooks Otis has identified four divisions in the narrative: Book I – Book II (end, line 875): The Divine Comedy Book III – Book VI, 400: The Avenging Gods Book VI, 401 – Book XI (end, line 795): The Pathos of Love Book XII – Book XV (end, line 879): Rome and the Deified Ruler Ovid works his way through his subject matter, often in an apparently arbitrary fashion, by jumping from one transformation tale to another, sometimes retelling what had come to be seen as central events in the world of Greek mythology and sometimes straying in odd directions. It begins with the ritual "invocation of the muse", and makes use of traditional epithets and circumlocutions. But instead of following and extolling the deeds of a human hero, it leaps from story to story with little connection. The recurring theme, as with nearly all of Ovid's work, is love—be it personal love or love personified in the figure of Amor (Cupid). Indeed, the other Roman gods are repeatedly perplexed, humiliated, and made ridiculous by Amor, an otherwise relatively minor god of the pantheon, who is the closest thing this putative mock-epic has to a hero. Apollo comes in for particular ridicule as Ovid shows how irrational love can confound the god out of reason. The work as a whole inverts the accepted order, elevating humans and human passions while making the gods and their desires and conquests objects of low humor. The Metamorphoses ends with an epilogue (Book XV.871–9), one of only two surviving Latin epics to do so. The ending acts as a declaration that everything except his poetry—even Rome—must give way to change: Now stands my task accomplished, such a work As not the wrath of Jove, nor fire nor sword Nor the devouring ages can destroy. One of the most influential works in Western culture, the Metamorphoses has inspired such authors as Dante Alighieri, Giovanni Boccaccio, Geoffrey Chaucer, and William Shakespeare. Numerous episodes from the poem have been depicted in acclaimed works of sculpture, painting, and music.
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Les métamorphoses ou l’asne d’or de Luce Apulée philosophe platonique, Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis (124-170 AD), trans. Jules De Montlyald, preface by Jules de Marthold, illust. [21 etchings] Martin van Maele (Charles Carrington, Librairie-Éditeur, 1905, Paris, #115/750) 6.25" X 9.25", xlviii+328pp, beautifully bound in three-quarter morocco over marbled boards with gilt titles and decorations on the spine, top-edge gilt, others uncut, fine condition overall, 21 full-page tipped-in B/W engravings with tissue guards and numerous in-text illustrations by Martin van Meale, red ribbon intact. The Metamorphoses of Apuleius, which St. Augustine referred to as “The Golden Ass”, is the only Ancient Roman novel in Latin to survive in its entirety. The plot Lucius and his curiosity and insatiable desire to see and practice magic. While trying to perform a spell to transform into a bird, he is accidentally transformed into an ass. This leads to a long journey, literal and metaphorical, filled with in-set tales. He finally finds salvation through the intervention of the goddess Isis, whose cult he joins. The date of the original work is uncertain. Scholars are not sure if he wrote it in his youth or at the end of his life. He adapted the story from a Greek story written by Lucius of Patrae, however his original Greek text has long been lost. Maurice François Alfred Martin van Miële (1863-5 – 1926), better known by his pseudonym Martin van Maële, was a French illustrator of early 20th century literature. Though he gained notoriety with his illustration for H. G. Wells in Les Premiers Hommes dans la Lune, and he worked as an illustrator for the Félix Juven’s French translations of the Sherlock Holmes series, he is now most widely renowned and mostly remembered for his erotic illustrations.
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The Golden Ass of Apuleius, a new translation with introduction and notes by Francis D. Byrne, Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis (124-170 AD), trans. Francis D Byrne, illust. [20 etchings] Martin van Maele (Classical Translation Union, Privately Issued for the Subscribers [Charles Carrington], 1904, Paris, #304/750) 6" X 8", xlix+588pp, blue boards with gilt decorations and titles, top-edge gilt, others deckled, some light foxing in the first few pages, advertisements on last few pages (all Carrington works). The Metamorphoses of Apuleius, which St. Augustine referred to as “The Golden Ass”, is the only Ancient Roman novel in Latin to survive in its entirety. The plot Lucius and his curiosity and insatiable desire to see and practice magic. While trying to perform a spell to transform into a bird, he is accidentally transformed into an ass. This leads to a long journey, literal and metaphorical, filled with in-set tales. He finally finds salvation through the intervention of the goddess Isis, whose cult he joins. The date of the original work is uncertain. Scholars are not sure if he wrote it in his youth or at the end of his life. He adapted the story from a Greek story written by Lucius of Patrae, however his original Greek text has long been lost. Maurice François Alfred Martin van Miële (1863-5 – 1926), better known by his pseudonym Martin van Maële, was a French illustrator of early 20th century literature. Though he gained notoriety with his illustration for H. G. Wells in Les Premiers Hommes dans la Lune, and he worked as an illustrator for the Félix Juven’s French translations of the Sherlock Holmes series, he is now most widely renowned and mostly remembered for his erotic illustrations.
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Manual of Classical Erotology (de figuris Veneris) by Fred. Chas. Forberg, trans. Alcide Bonneau (Privately Printed for Viscount Julian Smithson M. A. and Friends [Charles Carrington], 1884, one of 100 copies) vol. 2 only, half-bound in tan vellum over marbled boards, spine is labeled "Carrington" who is the presumed publisher. Top edge gilt, other edges deckled, binding loose but holding. De figuris Veneris (On the figures of Venus) was an anthology of ancient Greek and ancient Roman writings on erotic topics, discussed objectively and classified and grouped by subject matter. It was first published by the German classicist Friedrich Karl Forberg in 1824 in Latin and Greek as a commentary to Antonio Beccadelli's (1394-1471) Hermaphroditus (commonly referred to as Antonii Panormitae Hermaphroditus), an erotic poem sequence of 1425 in renaissance Latin, though it was later also published as a separate work. First edition of this important parallel English, Latin and Greek version. This very rare edition was translated by Alcide Bonneau and published by Charles Carrington. Each page has latin (and where appropriate, Greek) on the right side and the English translation on the left. This is the second volume only and includes the following chapters: IV. —Of Masturbation V. —Of Cunnilingues VI. —Of Tribads VII. —Of Intercourse with Animals VIII. —Of Spintrian Postures (a list of 95 sexual positions) Considered the gold standard English translation of the time, this edition followed a poor piracy of 1882 badly translated from Liseux’s French edition of 1882. The name of the publisher is missing (most likely to avoid prosecution) and the limitation statement says 100 copies were "printed for Viscount Julian Smithson M. A., the Translator, and his Friends" and further states that "None of these Copies are for Sale" (also to avoid prosecution). Through later statements (mostly by association) we know it was published by Charles Carrington and translated by Alcide Bonneau. Carrington, in his 1902 catalogue, Forbidden Books wrote (thus promoting the sale of his clandestinely published book): ‘Were I a bookseller, I do not think I should ever take the trouble to print such a book as I have now before me. Here is a Latin work, full of notes, and bristling with Greek quotations. A most careful and masterly translation has been placed opposite every page of the original text, and it needs no literary critic to see that no one but a real classical scholar—an old Oxford man—could ever have successfully struggled with such a task... The two stout volumes have evidently been printed on the Continent—and for very good and valid reasons, as no English printer would dare to undertake such a work,— therefore each page would have to be submitted to the translator, at least three or four times, foreign compositors working mechanically. Many months would thus pass in wearisome proof-reading, and when at last the hundred copies are struck off, and each man receives his due, what margin of profit awaits the silly bookseller-publisher? He is insulted in every way and laughed at if he dares to wonder that the British Customs seize any copies...’ In 1882 Forberg's work was translated into English and published by Charles Carrington as De figuris Veneris, Manual of classical erotology, and again in 1907 by Charles Hirsch, and into French, German and Spanish. The French edition by Alcide Bonneau was titled Manuel d’érotologie classique. One French edition of 1906 was illustrated by Édouard-Henri Avril, which concludes with a list of 95 sexual positions. Most of the editions were restricted to high society or censored; one of the copies edited in France was immediately deposited on the secret shelves of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
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Manual of Classical Erotology (de figuris Veneris) by Fred. Chas. Forberg, trans. Alcide Bonneau (Privately Printed for Viscount Julian Smithson M. A. and Friends [Charles Carrington], 1884, one of 100 copies) vol. 2 only, half-bound in tan vellum over marbled boards, spine is labeled "Carrington" who is the presumed publisher. Top edge gilt, other edges deckled, binding loose but holding. De figuris Veneris (On the figures of Venus) was an anthology of ancient Greek and ancient Roman writings on erotic topics, discussed objectively and classified and grouped by subject matter. It was first published by the German classicist Friedrich Karl Forberg in 1824 in Latin and Greek as a commentary to Antonio Beccadelli's (1394-1471) Hermaphroditus (commonly referred to as Antonii Panormitae Hermaphroditus), an erotic poem sequence of 1425 in renaissance Latin, though it was later also published as a separate work. First edition of this important parallel English, Latin and Greek version. This very rare edition was translated by Alcide Bonneau and published by Charles Carrington. Each page has latin (and where appropriate, Greek) on the right side and the English translation on the left. This is the second volume only and includes the following chapters: IV. —Of Masturbation V. —Of Cunnilingues VI. —Of Tribads VII. —Of Intercourse with Animals VIII. —Of Spintrian Postures (a list of 95 sexual positions) Considered the gold standard English translation of the time, this edition followed a poor piracy of 1882 badly translated from Liseux’s French edition of 1882. The name of the publisher is missing (most likely to avoid prosecution) and the limitation statement says 100 copies were "printed for Viscount Julian Smithson M. A., the Translator, and his Friends" and further states that "None of these Copies are for Sale" (also to avoid prosecution). Through later statements (mostly by association) we know it was published by Charles Carrington and translated by Alcide Bonneau. Carrington, in his 1902 catalogue, Forbidden Books wrote (thus promoting the sale of his clandestinely published book): ‘Were I a bookseller, I do not think I should ever take the trouble to print such a book as I have now before me. Here is a Latin work, full of notes, and bristling with Greek quotations. A most careful and masterly translation has been placed opposite every page of the original text, and it needs no literary critic to see that no one but a real classical scholar—an old Oxford man—could ever have successfully struggled with such a task... The two stout volumes have evidently been printed on the Continent—and for very good and valid reasons, as no English printer would dare to undertake such a work,— therefore each page would have to be submitted to the translator, at least three or four times, foreign compositors working mechanically. Many months would thus pass in wearisome proof-reading, and when at last the hundred copies are struck off, and each man receives his due, what margin of profit awaits the silly bookseller-publisher? He is insulted in every way and laughed at if he dares to wonder that the British Customs seize any copies...’ In 1882 Forberg's work was translated into English and published by Charles Carrington as De figuris Veneris, Manual of classical erotology, and again in 1907 by Charles Hirsch, and into French, German and Spanish. The French edition by Alcide Bonneau was titled Manuel d’érotologie classique. One French edition of 1906 was illustrated by Édouard-Henri Avril, which concludes with a list of 95 sexual positions. Most of the editions were restricted to high society or censored; one of the copies edited in France was immediately deposited on the secret shelves of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
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Manuel d'érotologie classique (De figuris veneris). Traduit littéralement du latin par Isidore Liseux et illustré de 20 compositions originales, by Fred. Chas. [translated by d'Alcide Bonneau and not Liseux as noted] (np [Charles Hirsch], Paris, 1906, #106/500 one of 120 printed on Hollande paper) 8.5" X 11.5", viii+167(1)pp, bound in half burgundy morocco over marbled crimson boards, gilt titles and decorations on spine, 5 raised bands, good+ condition, some bumping/rubbing to boards, very famous b&w frontispiece and 19 illustrations by Paul Avril, some soiling/foxing to illustrations, a beautiful and rare book in very good condition. De figuris Veneris (On the figures of Venus) was an anthology of ancient Greek and ancient Roman writings on erotic topics, discussed objectively and classified and grouped by subject matter. It was first published by the German classicist Friedrich Karl Forberg in 1824 in Latin and Greek as a commentary to Antonio Beccadelli's (1394-1471) Hermaphroditus (commonly referred to as Antonii Panormitae Hermaphroditus), an erotic poem sequence of 1425 in renaissance Latin, though it was later also published as a separate work. Chapters are: I. Of Copulation II. Of Pederastia III. Of Irrumation IV. Of Masturbation V. Of Cunnilingues VI. Of Tribads VII. Of Intercourse with Animals VIII. Of Spintrian Postures In 1882 Forberg's work was translated into English and published by Charles Carrington as De figuris Veneris, Manual of classical erotology, and again in 1907 by Charles Hirsch, and into French, German and Spanish. The French edition by Alcide Bonneau was titled Manuel d’érotologie classique. One French edition of 1906 was illustrated by Édouard-Henri Avril, which concludes with a list of 95 sexual positions. Most of the editions were restricted to high society or censored; one of the copies edited in France was immediately deposited on the secret shelves of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Hirsch's printed 500 copies of this 1906 edition. 20 were on Japan paper, 120 were on Holland paper, 340 were are Arches paper, and 20 were on "anglais" paper. This is one of 120 on Holland paper.
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Manuel d'érotologie classique (De figuris veneris). Traduit littéralement du latin par Isidore Liseux et illustré de 20 compositions originales, by Fred. Chas. [translated by d'Alcide Bonneau and not Liseux as noted] (np [Charles Hirsch], Paris, 1906, #106/500 one of 120 printed on Hollande paper) 8.5" X 11.5", viii+167(1)pp, bound in half burgundy morocco over marbled crimson boards, gilt titles and decorations on spine, 5 raised bands, good+ condition, some bumping/rubbing to boards, very famous b&w frontispiece and 19 illustrations by Paul Avril, some soiling/foxing to illustrations, a beautiful and rare book in very good condition. De figuris Veneris (On the figures of Venus) was an anthology of ancient Greek and ancient Roman writings on erotic topics, discussed objectively and classified and grouped by subject matter. It was first published by the German classicist Friedrich Karl Forberg in 1824 in Latin and Greek as a commentary to Antonio Beccadelli's (1394-1471) Hermaphroditus (commonly referred to as Antonii Panormitae Hermaphroditus), an erotic poem sequence of 1425 in renaissance Latin, though it was later also published as a separate work. Chapters are: I. Of Copulation II. Of Pederastia III. Of Irrumation IV. Of Masturbation V. Of Cunnilingues VI. Of Tribads VII. Of Intercourse with Animals VIII. Of Spintrian Postures In 1882 Forberg's work was translated into English and published by Charles Carrington as De figuris Veneris, Manual of classical erotology, and again in 1907 by Charles Hirsch, and into French, German and Spanish. The French edition by Alcide Bonneau was titled Manuel d’érotologie classique. One French edition of 1906 was illustrated by Édouard-Henri Avril, which concludes with a list of 95 sexual positions. Most of the editions were restricted to high society or censored; one of the copies edited in France was immediately deposited on the secret shelves of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Hirsch's printed 500 copies of this 1906 edition. 20 were on Japan paper, 120 were on Holland paper, 340 were are Arches paper, and 20 were on "anglais" paper. This is one of 120 on Holland paper.