Lot 221
![Aristotle's compleat master-piece [SALEROOM NOTICE: some new research has come to light, please read amended lot description]](https://media.app.artisio.co/media/104cbde6-0d38-43cb-9e0f-bb721ef57bcf/inventory/9856de9d-22bc-4b93-a2d2-76a0776c3a5b/ce93e094-1077-424a-8f29-7f8d70643178/0001_ghIhtt_original.jpg)
Aristotle's compleat master-piece [SALEROOM NOTICE: some new research has come to light, please read amended lot description]
Rare Books, Maps, Manuscripts & Photographs
Auction: 16 January 2013 at 10:00 GMT
Description
Aristotle's master-piece improved [title of this edition]. London: Printed and sold by the booksellers, [1766?]. 12mo, contemporary calf, limp boards, rubbed, some slight dust-soiling [ESTC N5718]
Footnote
Provenance: Property of the Trustees of Lord Gretton
Note: Incorrectly attributed to Aristotle, Aristotle's Compleat Master-Piece is, in fact, an early manual for sex and pregnancy, which first appeared around 1680. Several sources report the book to have been banned until the early 1960s, although we now think that it was not 'officially banned'. The work was certainly considered highly taboo and distasteful and any printers avoided including their names in the imprint, possibly for fear of prosecution.