ILLUSTRATED EDITION OF L’ARÉTIN’S LES RAGIONAMENTI, BEAUTIFULLY BOUND

L’ARÉTIN, Pierre. Oeuvres du Divin Arétin. Les Ragionamenti. Paris: Le Vasseur, 1933. Four volumes. Quarto, contemporary full brown calf, elaborately gilt-decorated spine and covers, raised bands, brown morocco spine labels, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt, uncut. $1250.

Copiously illustrated edition, with 53 color plates and six in-text color illustrations by renowned erotic illustrator André Collot, beautifully bound in full calf-gilt.

Consisting of shocking dialogues about women’s lives as nuns, as married women, and as prostitutes, this work was meant to serve as a sharp counterpoint to the analyses of Platonic themes that were in vogue at the beginning of the 16th century. Through it, L’Arétin succeeded in bringing lewd humor and biting satire back into the literature of the period. Ultimately, Pierre L’Arétin’s writings earned him an assassination attempt, permanent exile to Venice, and a place on the Pope’s Index Librorum Prohibitorum. The bright and bawdy color plates by prominent French erotic illustrator André Collot feature nuns, monks, aristocrats, and commoners engaged in all manner of scandal. Text in French.

A fine, beautiful set.