De figuris Veneris
De figuris Veneris (On the figures of Venus) was an anthology of ancient Greek and ancient Roman writings on erotic topics, discussed objectively and classified and grouped by subject matter. It was first published by the German classicist Friedrich Karl Forberg in 1824 in Latin and Greek as a commentary to Hermaphroditus by Antonio Beccadelli (i.e. Antonii Panormitae Hermaphroditus, an erotic poem sequence in renaissance Latin), though it was later also published as a separate work. It was later also translated into English (published by Charles Carrington in 1899[1] and again by Charles Hirsch in 1907[2]), French and German (one French edition was illustrated by Édouard-Henri Avril). It concludes with a list of 95 sexual positions.[3]
In popular culture
- John Wilmot's play The Farce of Sodom includes "Aretine's Postures" as a piece of set design.
- In Robert A. Heinlein's last novel, To Sail Beyond the Sunset, Dr Ira Johnson uses the book for sexual education. Later, Maureen Johnson does the same.
References and sources
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- Manuel d'erotologie classique; artandpopularculture.com
External links
Media related to Avril's illustrations to De figuris Veneris at Wikimedia Commons