Aloisiae Sigaeae, Toletanae, Satyra sotadica de arcanis amoris et Veneris  

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Portrait of Francis Dashwood, 15th Baron le Despencer by William Hogarth from the late 1750s, parodying Renaissance images of Francis of Assisi. The bible has been replaced by a copy of the erotic novel Elegantiae Latini sermonis, and the profile of Dashwood's friend Lord Sandwich peers from the halo.

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Sotadic, whore dialogue, literary mystificationAloisiae Sigaeae, Toletanae, Satyra sotadica de arcanis amoris et Veneris/Source/French

Aloisiae Sigaeae, Toletanae, Satyra sotadica de arcanis amoris et Veneris is a 17th century work of erotic fiction written in Latin by Nicolas Chorier, first published in c.1659. It was translated in French as Académie des dames ou le meursius francais in 1680.

These dialogues is the first erotic work written in neo-Latin, and it contains among other things a defense of tribadism (i.e. lesbianism). The attribution to Luisa Sigea de Velasco (as well as the attribution to Johannes Meursius) was a literary mystification, as was first demonstrated by Bruno Lavignini in his edition of the work (Italy, 1905). The work was later translated into many other languages, including English, under the title Dialogues of Luisa Sigea and The School of Women.

Contents

Plot

The book is written in the form of a series of seven dialogues (L'Escarmouche, Tribadicon, Anatomie, Le duel, Voluptés, Amours and Fescennins) with Tullia, a twenty-six year-old Italian woman, the wife of Callias, who is charged with the sexual initiation of her fifteen year old cousin, Ottavia, to whom she declares, "Your mother asked to reveal to you the most mysterious secrets of bridal bed and to teach you what you must be with your husband, which your husband will also be, touching these small things which so strongly inflame men's passion. This night, so that I can indoctrinate you in all of this liberated language, will sleep together in my bed, which I would like to be able to say will have been the softest of Venus's lace."

In French, "Ta mère m'a demandé de te découvrir les secrets les plus mystérieux du lit nuptial et de t'apprendre ce que tu dois être avec ton mari, ce que ton mari sera aussi, touchant ces petites choses pour lesquelles s'enflamment si fort les hommes. Cette nuit, pour que je puisse t'endoctriner sur tout d'une langue plus libre, nous coucherons ensemble dans mon lit, dont je voudrais pouvoir dire qu'il aura été la plus douce lice de Vénus."

Dialogue on anatomy

The description of the testicles in the English edition of Bartholinus Anatomy (1668) resembles the passage on the testicles in this dialogue.

Publication history

This manuscript claimed that it was originally written in Spanish by Luisa Sigea de Velasco, an erudite poetess and maid of honor at the court of Lisbon and was then translated into Latin by Jean or Johannes Meursius, a humanist born in Leiden, Holland in 1613. The attribution to Sigea was a lie and Meursius's translation was a complete fabrication. The manuscript circulated through the libertine community at the beginning of the eighteenth century and was known in Latin under many different titles. It was translated into French many times, including one translation by Jean Terrasson in 1750, and was also translated into English as The School of Women.

French translation

Alcide Bonneau

The first French translation appeared in 1680 (à Ville-Franche, by Michel Blanchet) and later in 1749 as Nouvelle Traduction de Meursius.

In 1680 was published the first French translation of an erotic work entitled Aloysiæ Sigeæ Toletanæ satyra sotadica de arcanis amoris et veneris: Aloysia hispanice scripsit: latinitate donauit J. Meursius, attributed to the Frenchman Nicolas Chorier. (The title means "Luisa Sigea Toledana's Sotadic (Sotades) satire, on the secrets of love and sex".

English translation

The first English translation may have appeared in 1682 as The School of Women but definitely in 1684 as A Dialogue Between a Married Lady and a Maid; for which William Cademan was prosecuted for "exposing, selling, uttering and publishing the pernicious, wicked, scandalous vicious and illicit book". --eroticabibliophile.com [Sept 2005]

Nicholas Chorier's Satyra Sotadica de Arcanis Amoris et Veneris, published as the work Dialogues of Aloisia (Luisa) Sigea and subsequently translated, abridged, and reworked, notably as L'académie des Dames.

Other editions

  • Aloisiae Sigeae Toletanae Satyra sotadica de arcanis Amoris et Veneris; Aloisia Hispanice scripsit; Latinitate donavit Ioannes Meursius. Gratianopoli (?) 1660.
  • Aloisiae Sigaeae Toletanae Satyra sotadica de arcanis amoris & Veneris ... accessit colloquium ante hac non editum, Fescennini, ex m.s. recens reperto. Editio noua, emendatior & auctior. Amstelodami 1678.
  • Joannis Meursii Elegantiae Latini sermonis seu Aloisia Sigæa Toletana de arcanis Amoris et Veneris; adjunctis fragmentis quibusdam eroticis. Lugduni Batavorum: Ex typis Elzevirianis [sed re vera Lutetiae: Barbou], 1757. [Vide imaginem]
  • Des secrets de l'amour et de Vénus, satire sotadique de Luisa Sigea, de Tolède, par Nicolas Chorier, préface d'André Berry, Éditions l'Or du Temps, 1969.
  • L'Académie des dames ou la Philosophie dans le boudoir du Grand Siècle, dialogues érotiques présentés par Jean-Pierre Dubost, Éditions Philippe Picquier, Arles, 1999.

See also

libertinism - erotic fiction - literature - Luisa Sigea de Velasco




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