Clark
Library
Aretino & Related
English Books| Policies| Exhibitions
Antonio Muscettola. La Carilda, overo bordello sostenuto. Manuscript, Italian, c. 1730.
This is a long, unpublished poem in three parts about an actress and courtesan named Giulia de Caro, known as La Carilda. Muscettola (1628-79) became Duke of Spezzano and was a published poet and playwright (Temp Ms.)
Nicolas Racot de Grandval. Le pot de chamber cassé. Ridiculomane [Paris]: [1742?].
This highly satirical play is dedicated “To Molière’s Shade.” The jokes and plays on words come thick and fast, beginning with the title-page (The Broken Chamber Pot, A Tragedy to Make You Laugh, Or a Comedy to Make You Cry, etc. etc.). (*PQ1799.G73P83).
Jean François de Batide. Le tribunal de l’amour, ou les causes célèbres de Cythère. Cythera [Paris]: 1749.
This is a typical example of the racy eighteenth-century French novel of love and private life, dressed up in an imprint meant to recall the birthplace of Venus. (*PQ1955.B32T82).
Le Chevalier de Meray. Les femmes, ou letters du Chevalier de K***** au Marquis de M*****. The Hague: 1754.
This is an epistolary novel about the female sex, floridly dedicated “à Vous, Sexe adorable.” (*PQ1947.F33).
Pietro Aretino. Dubbi amorosi colle sue soluzione e sonetti lussuriosi. Manuscript, Italian, mid-18th-century.
This little manuscript of Aretino’s pornographic sonnets and other poems is a wonderful example of the “under the counter” format in which prohibited texts circulated in the eighteenth century. (Temp. Ms.).
Pietro Aretino. Histoire des amours faintes et dissimulées de Lais & Lamia, recitées par elles-mesmes. Paris: 1595.
This is a copy of a very rare French edition of one of Aretino’s Ragionamenti. (*PQ4563R14F 1595).
Giulio Cesare Croce. L”Eccellenza et trionfo del porco. Ferrara: 1594.
This volume contains ten popular chapbooks from 16th-century Italy, including this homage to the delights of the pig (on the table, of course). (*PQ4249A5D53 1595).
Nicolas Chorier. Elegantiae latini sermonis, seu Aloisia Sigeia Toletana De arcanis amoris & Veneris adjunctis fragmentis quibusdam eroticis [liber]. Leiden: 1757.
This is one of the most infamous of all seventeenth-century erotic books, in a highly sought-after eighteenth-century edition. The frontispiece is attributed to Hubert François Gravelot. (*PQ8485C5A45 1757).