The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
MANUAL
OF
Classical Erotology
(De figuris Veneris)
One Hundred Copies only of this volume have beenprinted (all on the same paper and the type distributed)for Viscount Julian Smithson M. A., the Translator,and his Friends. None of these Copies are for Sale.
It is perhaps well to state at once that the“Manual of Classical Erotology” is intendedonly for Students of the Classics, Lawyers,Psychologists and Medical Men. Those persons,we think, who may peruse it as a meansof awakening voluptuous sensations will beseverely disappointed. Never did a workmore serious issue from the press. Here wehave no curious erotic story born of a diseasedmind, but a cold, relentless analysis of thosehuman passions which it is ever the object ofScience to wrestle with and overthrow.
As a basis also for the correct interpretationof the drama of the ancient world, Forberg’sstudies are most valuable. Apart from thatextraordinary book, Rosenbaum’s History ofthe Esoteric Habits, Beliefs and Customs ofAntiquity, we know of no other compilationwhich casts so intense a search-light uponthose Crimes, Follies and Perversions of the“Sixth Sense” which transformed the oldenglory of Greece and Rome into a by-word anda reproach amongst the nations.
The present English translation now offeredto Scholars is entirely new and strictly exact.No liberties have been taken with the text. Itwas felt that any attempt to add more colour,or to increase the effect,—involving a departurefrom the lines of stern simplicity laiddown by Forberg,—would have detractedfrom the scientific value and character of thework.
The late Isidore Liseux issued in 1882 aFrench version with Latin text imprimé à centexemplaires “for himself and friends.” Thiswork is now very seldom to be met with becausethe whole edition was privately subscribedby Scholars and Bibliophiles beforeits appearance. The thieving copyists went ofcourse immediately to work and some wretchedpenny-a-liner, utterly ignorant of bothLatin and Greek, produced an English transcriptfull of faults, based only on the Frenchtext.
There is no need to add that such a book asthis is of no value to the Student as a work ofref