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Aristotle’s Masterpiece Completed in Two Parts.

Ancient X-Rated Book of Perversion Goes Up For Sale. Any Bidders?

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A perverted "sex manual" featuring shocking magical and mythical X-rated content will be sold at a UK auction next month.

The first edition of this sordid book entitled Aristotle's Masterpiece Completed In Two Parts, The First Containing the Secrets of Generation, was published in London in 1684. “It was as good as banned from distribution until the 1960s,” Jim Spencer, a valuer at Hansons Auctioneers in Derbyshire, told reporters at the BBC. This weathered old book, somewhat ironically bound in leather, offers questionable advice on “reproduction and fertility” and is estimated to fetch £80-£120 ($110-$170) under the hammer on 27 March.

The book dated back to 1720 is leather bound. (Image: Hanson’s Auctioneers)

The book dated back to 1720 is leather bound. (Image: Hanson’s Auctioneers)

This tapestry of dark and twisted sexual advice, intermixed with witchcraft, astrology and religion, includes woodcut illustrations of strange, nightmarish, creatures that “are begot by women's unnatural lying with beasts,” and a graphic illustration of an act of bestiality shows a woman “generating” with a dog.

Some monsters are blamed on womens sexual perversion, such as generating with a Dog. (Image: Hansons Auctioneers)

Some monsters are blamed on womens sexual perversion, such as generating with a Dog. (Image: Hansons Auctioneers)

The book is being sold at a time when sexual issues have never been more prevalent, yet it talks of “man, the wonder of the world, to whom all things are subordinate” and it pushes the idea that “women are prone to sexual indulgence.” Its content defines the book, not as a serious sexist theology, but as a farce, as it goes so far as to say “parents' thoughts during sex impact the appearance of the child,” and that ones "force of imagination” can produce a child with "a hairy lip, wry mouth or great blubber-lips”.

Auctioneer Spenser told reporters that to help couples struggling to rekindle that “lost spark” the book suggests a number of foods such as “eggs, sparrows, blackbirds, gnat snappers, thrushes, partridges, parsnips, young pigeons, ginger and turnips.” Although this warped sexual manual is getting a lot of attention in the media this week, it is a relatively modern sexual prose. In an recent research paper entitled Ancient Sex Crafts of the Femme Fatales, I explored in detail, the ancient origins of “sexual instruction and the arts of seduction.” I revealed how Ancient Indian Vedic cultures took sexual rituals to an entirely different level, much of which is today regarded as - just wrong!

Erotica at Khajuraho temples

Erotica at Khajuraho temples ( Nagarjun Kandukuru / CC  BY SA 2.0 )

Deep in jungles, the 10th century Khajuraho Monuments are a group of Hindu and Jain temples in Madhya Pradesh comprised of purpose built sex rooms and “carnal chambers.” Every square inch of every wall has been carved with tens of thousands of highly graphic sexual images to enhance the ritual environment. From graphic images of men having sex with animals, to bizarre 1 woman - 20 men group sex encounters, these ancient Vedic rituals were highly theatrical events where sex first became corresponded with spirituality, and the seeds were sown for what later became the internationally best selling love guide -  The Kama Sutra.

Kama Sutra Illustration.

Kama Sutra Illustration. (Public Domain)

The book being auctioned next month advises one to eat sparrows and turnips to "get into the mood to shimmy,” but please, if you need spiritual assistance in such matters, I would turn towards the gentle meditational teachings of ancient Hindu and Buddhist sex specialists and attempt to raise the powerful sexual energy they believed lies with every one of us, known as Kundalini. This concept was famously visualized as a serpent goddess at the base of our spines, waiting for us to unlock her orgasmic energy through a combination of meditation, yoga and selfless acts of love.

Live Science reported in an article that Spenser, who will manage the sale of the book next month, concluded in his statement: “You have to bear in mind that this book was written when people were still being burnt for witchcraft in Georgian England.” But in-between its risqué “locker room” advice, the old book does have some nuggets which are applicable today, in that it states: "Without doubt, the uniting of hearts in holy wedlock is of all conditions the happiest, for then a man has a second self to whom he can unravel his thoughts as well as a sweet companion in his labour”.

I would say this old book is worth 80 quid as an after-dinner curiosity!

Top image: Aristotle’s Masterpiece Completed in Two Parts. (Hanson’s Auctioneers)

By Ashley Cowie

 
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Ashley

Ashley is a Scottish historian, author, and documentary filmmaker presenting original perspectives on historical problems in accessible and exciting ways.

He was raised in Wick, a small fishing village in the county of Caithness on the north east coast of... Read More

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