VENUS IN SACKCLOTH: The Magdalen's Origins and Metamorphoses by Malvern, Marjorie M - (1975.)

Carbondale, IL:: Southern Illinois University Press,, (1975.). Near fine in a very good dust jacket. Uncommon, and especially so inscribed by the author.. . First printing. A scholarly and perceptive study of the changing attitudes toward Mary Magdalen during the past two thousand years. John Lash in his article on Gnostic beliefs states "No one lately seems to have gotten her tawdry image as right as Marjorie M. Malvern, whose Venus in Sackcloth was published in 1975, almost thirty years before the present furor over Magdalene [that is, due to Brown's DaVinci Code] . Malvern shows that 'the connection of the Magdalen with a goddess of loveÉ is unbroken and unmistakable' in European art and literature from classical times. Illustrated with many reproductions of art works from medieval times on. Extensive notes, selected bibliography, index. Very warmly and personally INSCRIBED by the author on the front pastedown "For --- May you remember the words of Max Spielman 'Ontogeny recapitulates cosmogeny - what is it but to say, Proctoscopy repeats hagiography?' as you view 'Venus in Sackcloth' - with love and best wishes for joy." 219 pp.