Aristotle's Works Compleated in Four Parts. I The Compleat Master-Piece. II His Compleat and Experienced Midwife .III His Book of Problems. IV His Last Legacy

London: Printed, and sold by the Booksellers, 1749. THIRD EDITION THUS (1st collected ed. 1739). Hardcover. Fine. A composite collection of works dealing with sexuality, childbirth, and other subjects, comprising four separate works published: pseudo-Aristotle's "Compleat Master-Piece", "Aristotle's midwife", "Problems... touching the state of Man's Body", and the "Last Legacy: Unfolding the Mysteries of Nature in the Generation of Man", together with a general title page. These treatises on pregnancy, childbirth, sexuality, and home medicine, trading on the name of Aristotle, appeared individually and then in collected editions throughout the 18th century, mostly in undated editions. Due to the alluring nature of some of the texts (the "Master-Piece" and "Legacy" had pornographic content) and the utilitarian function of the midwives' manual, all printings are uncommon and rarely found complete. The parts (without the general title) were also available separately. It is particularly unusual to find these titles still in an 18th century binding.

Bound in contemporary sheepskin (corners worn, small defects to head and foot of spine and hinges, boards lightly scuffed), the boards with a double blind-rule and tooled with a repeating decorative roll tool. Signature of the first owner to front and rear pastedowns: 'Jonathan Baxter. his book 1752'. Complete with the 4 woodcut frontispieces (the first with woodcuts on both sides) and the added folding woodcut showing a child in the womb. The contents are in remarkably good condition. The general title page has an unobtrusive archival tape repair. The folding "child in the womb" plate with a similar repair to the blank verso. Light soiling to title, opening leaves cut a bit close, shaving (on the first leaf) the final line of the imprint and final line of the advert. The first line on the 3rd leaf (title to "Compleat Masterpiece") is shaved very slightly; several other leaves are trimmed very close at the fore-edge, occasionally affecting a letter. Faint oil stain to opening gathering, light smudge at head of leaf A4. Scattered minor blemishes. Margins a bit close throughout but only shaving the odd headline. Leaf D5 third part with tear in upper blank margin. Final leaf with mended tear, archivally mended.

The first work in the volume, "Aristotle's Masterpiece", was an extraordinarily popular guide to sex and pregnancy, designed for the patients who could not afford professional medical care. Originally published in 1684, it was published and pirated into the 19th century. "The frontispiece... was one of very few erotic images available to the common reader. It was sold furtively by country peddlers and in general stores and taverns; regular booksellers seldom advertised it, though they usually had it under the counter."(Library Company of Philadelphia)

The second work in the volume is a popular childbirth manual covering the entire process from conception through pregnancy, labor and the caring for newborn babies and older children. The folding plate shows the position of a baby in the womb.

The fourth work is a sex manual in the guise of a work on human reproduction. Chapters include "Of Virginity: its Signs and Tokens", "Of the Organs of Generation in Women", "Of the Use and Action of Genitals", "Of Conception; and how to know whether a Woman has conceiv'd", "Of Barrenness, with Remedy against it", and "Directions to both Sexes how to manage themselves in the Act of Coition".

I. The "Master-Piece":

The "Master-Piece" "was the most popular book about women's bodies, sex, pregnancy, and childbirth in Britain and America from its first appearance in 1684 up to at least the 1870s."(Fissell, "Hairy Women and Naked Truths", p. 46)

The attribution to Aristotle was an attempt to link the work to one of the most influential classical writers in the early modern period, one who had written "On the Generation of Animals". "The book's title, like the work itself, was an unusual combination of learned and vernacular elements. The makers of 'Masterpiece' probably intended "Aristotle" to connote both classical learning and expertise in sexual matters.

"The text repeatedly suggests that women's sexual knowledge is unreliable or deceptive. In addition to proposing that a woman might cuckold her husband without detection if a child resulted, the text raised profound doubts about women's honesty concerning virginity...

"The frontispiece depicts two "monstrous" individuals, a hairy woman and a black baby born to white parents. Each is monstrous because each was deformed by the maternal imagination. The hairy woman's mother, while pregnant, had looked at a picture of St. John the Baptist in the desert, dressed in animal skins. The image imprinted itself on her mind and thus on the body of her unborn baby. The story emphasizes the frailty of women's understanding-the mother's poor compre- hension transformed an ascetic saint dressed in skins into a hairy animal and produced a female monster from that distorted impression. Similarly, the black baby was born to a white couple who had a picture of a black man hanging in their bedroom. At the moment of conception, the woman looked at the painting, and the image supposedly imprinted itself on the child-to-be."(Fissell, Mary E. "Hairy Women and Naked Truths", pp. 46-64)

II. "Compleat and Experienced Midwife":

While more affluent women may have been able to afford a doctor or trained midwife, poorer people turned to these inexpensive manuals as a guide to all aspects of childbirth and reproduction and as such deserve to be studied as an important source for information on women's health in the period.

The present book trades on Aristotle's name but provides much more practical and medically informed advice on the process of childbirth. The book purports to be a translation into English and the dedication is to "The Midwives" on account of the "many Persons, as I saw every Day in danger of Perishing, by the committing themselves into the Hands of unskilled Midwives." (p.1)

The initial sections set out the rudimentary process of conception with anatomical attention given to the sexual reproductive parts of both the male and female. Next follows a section on successful conception and the biological signs of pregnancy. Great detail is then given on a month-by-month basis regarding the correct preparation for childbirth (including the questionable practice of anointing with duck, hen or goose fat, p.27). In this section the rudimentary woodcut diagram shows a child in the womb prior to delivery.

The next sections are on labor and birth and provide information on the delivery of the after-birth and the correct procedure for "labouring of a dead child" (p.74). The rest of the work concentrates on the care of the newborn child, medical complications after birth and the nursing of the newborn. There are also chapters on disease related to the womb.

IV. His Last Legacy:

The female genitalia is carefully described, including the clitoris: "the Clytoris is a sinewy and hard Body, full of spungy and black Matter within; and in form represents the Yard of a Man, and is subject to Erection and Falling as that does. This is that which is the Seat of Venereal Pleasure, and gives Women delight in the Act of Copulation; for without this a Woman neither desires Coition, nor hath Pleasure in it, nor conceives by it. The Clytoris sometimes grows out of the body two Inches, but this very seldom happens." (Ch. 2)

The author provides "Directions to the new married Persons how to manage themselves in the Exercises of one of the greatest, most natural and agreeable Pleasures thereof, and that is, their, Nocturnal or Venereal Embraces. (Ch. 8)

My Rudder with thy bold Hand, like a try'd
And skilful Pilot, thou shalt steer, and guide,
My Bark into Love's Channel, where it shall
Dance as the bounding Waves do rife and fall;
And my tall Pinnace in the Cyprian Streight,
Shall ride at Anchor, and unlade ber Freight.

"When Coition is over, some further Directions are necessary: And therefore let the vanquished Bridegroom (for he must needs be vanquished that has in the Encounter loft his Artillery) take heed how he retreats too soon out of the Field of Love, left he should thereby leave an Entrance too open, and some inimick Cold should strike into the Womb." (Ch. 8)

Some myths about women's bodies are refuted and explained. For instance, the author explains that the presence of milk in a woman's breast is not a sign she has lost her virginity: "there is a two-fold Milk, the one of Virgins is a Malady contrary to Nature . . . made of Blood that cannot get out of the Womb, and so goes to the Breasts". (Chapter 1).

Contents:

General title page: "Aristotle's Works Compleated in Four Parts", with advertisement for The Ladies Dispensatory on the verso.

Pt. I. "Aristotle's Compleat Masterpiece", 22nd edition, 1741: preceded by a double-sided woodcut frontispiece; pp. 144.; woodcuts in text and a single fold-out woodcut: 'The Form of a Child in the Womb'.

Pt. II. "Aristotle's Compleat and Experienc'd Midwife", Eighth Edition, ND, 1740? frontispiece [4] iv, pp. 156 [4].

Pt. III. "Aristotle's Book of Problems with other Astronomers..." 25th edition, ND, 1740?; frontispiece; [4] pp. 152.

Pt. IV. "Aristotle's Last Legacy, Unfolding the Mysteries of Nature", R Ware, 1749, frontispiece [8] pp. 114.