London: [various printers], 1749 – ca. 1750.

Price: $8,000.00

Large Duodecimo: Four Books Bound as One: 15.4 x 9 cm. I. 144 p. A-F12 (with an added folding leaf with a woodcut illustration); II. [4], iv, 156, [4] p. A-G12; III. [4], 152 p. A-F12, G6; IV. [8], 112 p. A-E12. Each work has a full-page woodcut frontispiece, integral to the collation. The frontis. in the first work is printed recto and verso, with two different images.

VARIOUS EDITIONS. THESE WORKS, AVAILABLE SEPARATELY, WERE ALSO ISSUED TOGETHER WITH A GENERAL TITLE PAGE, “The works of Aristotle compleat”, ca. 1750 (ESTC N47473).

A fine copy in modern calf preserving a bit of the original leather. Small stain in outer margin of gathering G in the second work, tiny wormholes in lower margin of opening leaves. The folding leaf in the first work has a mended tear to the central fold, slightly affecting the image. There is a small paper flaw to the upper margin of p. 145/6 in the third work, touching the page number on the recto. There are two tears into the text (mended with no loss) on p. 85/6 of the final work. Each book has a woodcut frontispiece. The first work also has six small woodcuts (deformities, a Zodiac Man, conjoined twins, and a palmistry hand) in the text and a folding image of a child in the womb.

These four treatises on pregnancy, childbirth, sexuality, folk science, and home medicine, trading on the name of Aristotle, appeared individually and then in collected editions throughout the 18th century, mostly in undated editions. Due to the alluring nature of some of the texts (the “Master-Piece” and “Legacy” had pornographic content) and the utilitarian function of the midwives’ manual, all printings are uncommon and rarely found complete.

The first work in the volume, “Aristotle’s Masterpiece”, was an extraordinarily popular guide to sex and pregnancy, designed for the patients who could not afford professional medical care. Originally published in 1684, it was published and pirated into the 19th century. The frontispiece was one of very few erotic images available to the common reader.

The “Master-Piece” “was the most popular book about women’s bodies, sex, pregnancy, and childbirth in Britain and America from its first appearance in 1684 up to at least the 1870s… It was not written by Aristotle, it was assembled from a number of popular medical works . . . and is a bizarre assortment of superstition, folklore, and sex facts and fancies, all mixed in with the sort of common-sense medical advice that had been passed down by midwives for centuries.”(Fissell, Mary E. “Hairy Women and Naked Truths”, pp. 46-64)

The second work in the volume is a childbirth manual covering the entire process from conception through pregnancy, labor, and birth. There are instructions for performing complicated deliveries, caring for newborn babies and older children, and contending with stillborn children. The folding plate shows the position of a baby in the womb.

The third is a collection of pseudo-Aristotelian questions “How comes it that the heart is continually moving?, “Why do beasts move their ears and not man?”, “Why are the lips moveable?”, “Why do fish not make a sound?”, “Why do madmen’s arms become slender?”, “Why have men not as great breasts as women?”

The fourth is a work on human reproduction and women’s sexual health, with detailed descriptions of genitalia, sexual intercourse, and venereal disease. Written for midwives, it is a re-arrangement of relevant chapters from the “Masterpiece”. Chapters include “Of Virginity… its Signs and Tokens”, “Of the Organs of Generation in Women”, “Of the Use and Action of the Genitals”, “Of Conception; and how a Woman may know whether she has conceiv'd”, “Of Barrenness, with remedies against it”, and “Directions to both Sexes how to manage themselves in the Act of Coition”.

All four works are discussed in more depth below.

Contents:

I. Aristotle's Compleat Master Piece. In three parts; Displaying the Secrets of Nature in the Generation of Man: Regularly digested into Chapters and Sections, rendering it far more useful and easy than any yet extant. To which is added, a Treasure of Health; or, the Family Physician: Being Choice and approved Remedies for all the several Distempers incident to Human Bodies. The Twenty-Third Edition.

[London]: Printed and sold by the Booksellers, 1749

ESTC T116548

[Bound with:]

II. Aristotle's Compleat and Experienc'd midwife. In two parts. I. Guide for Child-Bearing Women, ... II. Proper and safe Remedies for the Curing all those Distempers that are incident to the Female Sex; ... Made English by W- S-, M.D, The Tenth Edition

ESTC T116550 (The final line of the paragraph on the title page beginning "A work far more perfect .." reads "men.")

London: Printed and Sold by the Booksellers, [n.d. circa 1750?]

[Bound with:]

III. Aristotle's Book of Problems, with other Astronomers, Astrologers, Physicians, and Philosophers. Wherein is contain'd divers Questions and Answers touching the State of Man's Body. The Twenty-Fifth Edition.

London: Printed and Sold by J.W. J.K. G.C. D.M. A.B. E.M. R.R. J.O. and L. B.M. and A.W., [n.d. circa 1740?]

ESTC T116576 (The edition statement set in Roman type, and the imprint including the initials: G.C. and R.R.)

[Bound with:]

IV. Aristotle's Last Legacy. Unfolding the Mysteries of Nature in the Generation of Man: Treating I. Of Virginity … II. Of the Organs of Generation in Women … III. Of the Use and Action of Genitals in the Work of Generation … VII. Directions to both Sexes how to manage themselves in the Act of Coition …

London: Printed for R. Ware, on Ludgate-Hill, C. Hitch, in Pater-noster-Row, and J. Hodges, on London-Bridge, 1749

T116546 (the 112 p. edition)

I. The “Master-Piece”:

The “Master-Piece” “was the most popular book about women’s bodies, sex, pregnancy, and childbirth in Britain and America from its first appearance in 1684 up to at least the 1870s… It was not written by Aristotle, it was assembled from a number of popular medical works . . . and is a bizarre assortment of superstition, folklore, and sex facts and fancies, all mixed in with the sort of common-sense medical advice that had been passed down by midwives for centuries.”(Fissell, Mary E. “Hairy Women and Naked Truths”, pp. 46-64)

“The text repeatedly suggests that women's sexual knowledge is unreliable or deceptive. In addition to proposing that a woman might cuckold her husband without detection if a child resulted, the text raised profound doubts about women's honesty concerning virginity…

“The frontispiece depicts two "monstrous" individuals, a hairy woman and a black baby born to white parents. Each is monstrous because each was deformed by the maternal imagination. The hairy woman's mother, while pregnant, had looked at a picture of St. John the Baptist in the desert, dressed in animal skins. The image imprinted itself on her mind and thus on the body of her unborn baby. The story emphasizes the frailty of women's understanding-the mother's poor compre- hension transformed an ascetic saint dressed in skins into a hairy animal and produced a female monster from that distorted impression. Similarly, the black baby was born to a white couple who had a picture of a black man hanging in their bedroom. At the moment of conception, the woman looked at the painting, and the image supposedly imprinted itself on the child-to-be.”(Ibid.)

II. “Compleat and Experienced Midwife”:

While more affluent women may have been able to afford a doctor or trained midwife, poorer people turned to these inexpensive manuals as a guide to all aspects of childbirth and reproduction and as such deserve to be studied as an important source for information on women's health in the period.

The present book trades on Aristotle's name but provides much more practical and medically informed advice on the process of childbirth. The book purports to be a translation into English and the dedication is to "The Midwives" on account of the "many Persons, as I saw every Day in danger of Perishing, by the committing themselves into the Hands of unskilled Midwives." (p.1)

The initial sections set out the rudimentary process of conception with anatomical attention given to the sexual reproductive parts of both the male and female. Next follows a section on successful conception and the biological signs of pregnancy. Great detail is then given on a month-by-month basis regarding the correct preparation for childbirth (including the questionable practice of anointing with duck, hen or goose fat, p.27). In this section the rudimentary woodcut diagram shows a child in the womb prior to delivery.

The next sections are on labor and birth and provide information on the delivery of the afterbirth and the correct procedure for "labouring of a dead child" (p.74). The rest of the work concentrates on the care of the newborn child, medical complications after birth and the nursing of the newborn. There are also chapters on disease related to the womb.

III. Aristotle’s Book of Problems:

A translation of a popular 14th-15th c. pseudo-Aristotelian compilation of hundreds of questions about the natural world (much of it “folk science”) and wider philosophical questions, from “Why does a woman conceive a female child?”, “Why do we wonder at the eclipse of the sun and moon and not at the generation of plants and animals from seed?”, “Why is the flesh nearest the bone sweetest?”, “Why are some overcome and dismayed by drunkenness?”, to “Why is sneezing good?”. A number of the questions concern human sexuality (descriptions of genitalia, sexual arousal, intercourse, fertility, pregnancy, gestation, birth, birth defects and deformities, etc.)

The book was first translated into English in the 16th c., with new questions added by the translator. Subsequent editions added yet more questions, probably with the input of in-house staff working in the print shops that produced them (see Ann Blair, “Authorship in the Popular ‘Problemata Aristotelis,’” Early Science and Medicine 4 (1999): 189–227).

The book also includes questions taken from the authentic collections of Alexander of Aphrodisias (fl. 200) and Marcantonio Zimara (d. after 1529).

IV. His Last Legacy:

A work on human reproduction and women’s sexual health, with detailed descriptions of genitalia, sexual intercourse, venereal disease, infertility, etc. Chapters include “Of Virginity: its Signs and Tokens”, “Of the Organs of Generation in Women”, “Of the Use and Action of Genitals”, “Of Conception; and how to know whether a Woman has conceiv'd”, “Of Barrenness, with Remedy against it”, and “Directions to both Sexes how to manage themselves in the Act of Coition”.

The female genitalia is carefully described, including the clitoris: “the Clytoris is a sinewy and hard Body, full of spongy and black Matter within; and in form represents the Yard of a Man, and is subject to Erection and Falling as that does. This is that which is the Seat of Venereal Pleasure, and gives Women delight in the Act of Copulation; for without this a Woman neither desires Coition, nor hath Pleasure in it, nor conceives by it. The Clytoris sometimes grows out of the body two Inches, but this very seldom happens.” (Ch. 2)

The author provides “Directions to the new married Persons how to manage themselves in the Exercises of one of the greatest, most natural and agreeable Pleasures thereof, and that is, their, Nocturnal or Venereal Embraces. (Ch. 8)

My Rudder with thy bold Hand, like a try'd
And skilful Pilot, thou shalt steer, and guide,
My Bark into Love's Channel, where it shall
Dance as the bounding Waves do rise and fall;
And my tall Pinnace in the Cyprian Streight,
Shall ride at Anchor, and unlade her Freight.

“When Coition is over, some further Directions are necessary: And therefore let the vanquished Bridegroom (for he must needs be vanquished that has in the Encounter loft his Artillery) take heed how he retreats too soon out of the Field of Love, left he should thereby leave an Entrance too open, and some inimick Cold should strike into the Womb.” (Ch. 8)

Some myths about women’s bodies are refuted and explained. For instance, the author explains that the presence of milk in a woman's breast is not a sign she has lost her virginity: “there is a two-fold Milk, the one of Virgins is a Malady contrary to Nature . . . made of Blood that cannot get out of the Womb, and so goes to the Breasts”. (Chapter 1).