Banned Georgian sex manual reveals strange beliefs

[Deleted]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-43044066

A 300-year-old "secrets of sex" manual banned for its shocking content is due to be sold at auction next month. Dating back to 1720, Aristotle's Masterpiece Completed In Two Parts, The First Containing the Secrets of Generation, offers a range of advice.

Here are a few tips from which the Georgians were lucky enough to benefit.

Don't lie with beasts
The manual - with the added power of illustrative woodcuts - warns women that if they "generate with animals" they run the risk of giving birth to monsters.

One picture shows a man sporting an impressive tail; another shows a child being born with feathers and a single, clawed leg.

The bird-child was apparently born in Italy in 1512 and it was all the fault of the mother, who was "filthy and corrupt".

Stare at your husband
It is a little-known fact that the way a child looks depends entirely on its mother's imagination.

The book claims "if women cast their eyes on ill-shaped bodies, the force of imagination could produce a child with a hairy lip, wry mouth or great blubber-lips".

How to avoid this?

During sex women should "earnestly look upon the man and fix her mind upon him". Then the child will resemble its father - who hopefully does not have blubbery, hairy or "wry" lips.

Eat the right things

Men wanting to "make their seed abound" should focus their diet on a combination of root vegetables and songbirds.

A long list of recommended foods to aid men's sexual function includes eggs, sparrows, blackbirds, gnat snappers, thrushes, partridges, parsnips, young pigeons, ginger and turnips.

Women, who as a gender are at risk of sexual indulgence - or "venery" - should avoid eating "hard, fat things and spices" because such comestibles cause the body to become more heated.

Another solution is for a maiden to simply get married - and when their venery is met by "the enjoyment of their husbands, they become more gay and lively".

Don't rush off

Here's a word of advice for Mr Right.

"When they have done what nature can require, a man must have a care he does not part too soon from the embraces of his wife".

After all, it's only polite.

Employ gender selection
Want a girl? After sex, a prospective mother should lie on her left. For a boy, she should lie on her right.

Meanwhile, "the fittest time for the procreation of male children is when the sun is in Leo and moon in Virgo, Scorpio or Sagittarius".

To beget a female however, the book says "the best time is when the Moon is in the wane, in Libra or Aquarius".

Remember men come first
The book talks of men being "the wonder of the world, to whom all things are subordinate" and "his seed should be seen as a divine gift abundantly endued with vital spirit".

It romantically states: "Without doubt, the uniting of hearts in holy wedlock is of all conditions the happiest, for then a man has a second self to whom he can unravel his thoughts as well as a sweet companion in his labour".

And what right-minded woman wouldn't want to be considered her man's "second self"?

I actually found this really amusing

[Orby]

Not as raunchy as expected :P

[Independent voter]

That's the South for you.

[Speaknoevil]

I don't think I've ever experienced this collection of emotions simultaneously before.

Incredulous at stupidity, mildly annoyed at the absurdity of this brand of misogyny and facepalm vicarious shame at seeing the words "his seed should be seen as divine."

[Moralgy]

I would be surprised if anything that talked about sex what so ever was allowed to exist back then. America's past, and to some extent our present, is pretty pent up sexually.

[Mad_Murdock]

That's the South for you.

At first I was like what? Then I'm like Ohhh..wait...What? And now I'm like...Yeah..I guess so.

Not sure if serious or not....

I had to double check the map myself, They do look to be in The South. though a different site says it's Georgian era which then makes it not true.

[Katchii]

That's the South for you.

Not sure if serious or not....

[oplawlz]

That's the South for you.

It was published in ny.

- - - Updated - - -

I don't think I've ever experienced this collection of emotions simultaneously before.

Incredulous at stupidity, mildly annoyed at the absurdity of this brand of misogyny and facepalm vicarious shame at seeing the words "his seed should be seen as divine."

Have you not seen the Meaning of Life? Because you should.

[Gorgodeus]

I don't think I've ever experienced this collection of emotions simultaneously before.

Incredulous at stupidity, mildly annoyed at the absurdity of this brand of misogyny and facepalm vicarious shame at seeing the words "his seed should be seen as divine."

Can I get a hallelulah?

[Katchii]

I had to double check the map myself, They do look to be in The South. though a different site says it's Georgian era which then makes it not true.

More speaking to the reference that Georgia is a southern state in the US and Georgia wasn't even a thing until at least a decade or two after this book was supposedly published. Doesn't mean it couldn't have been published by the same people who founded Georgia, I suppose.

That said, Georgia at the time was all British colonists. The context of the statement I'm commenting on is kind of inferring that at that point in time Georgia already had a stereotypical southern US state reputation, which may be true...but that's not due to any US influence or whatever, it was all brought over by the British colonists who colonized that area. So semi blaming the southern US for the text is just weird since it's all Brits who wrote the document.

So the statement I'm referring to is just making me do some mental gymnastics to try and understand what he's insinuating.

[Mad_Murdock]

More speaking to the reference that Georgia is a southern state in the US and Georgia wasn't even a thing until at least a decade or two after this book was supposedly published. Doesn't mean it couldn't have been published by the same people who founded Georgia, I suppose.

So the statement I'm referring to is just making me do some mental gymnastics to try and understand what he's insinuating.

I assumed it was a clever troll, because it was meant to be Georgia the country, which is physically in Southern Europe, so it is "The South", just not the one "The South" normally implies.

But then when the other site said it was Georgian era, then it's purely a British thing, which then makes "The South" technically incorrect.

[Puupi]

Oh dear you people thinking it has anything to do with Georgia the state....

- - - Updated - - -

What I find interesting that they assume it will be sold for 120 pounds.

My assumption is the price should be at least tenfold, or hundredfold.

[Doctor Amadeus]

Yeah I’m not gonna judge whatever fetches people’s boat. No judgements lol

[Katchii]

Oh dear you people thinking it has anything to do with Georgia the state....

- - - Updated - - -

What I find interesting that they assume it will be sold for 120 pounds.

My assumption is the price should be at least tenfold, or hundredfold.

That was my first instinct as well, which is why I made the "not sure if serious" comment. The linked article doesn't mention anything about where it was published though and the founding of Georgia the US colony coincides closely with the date the book was published so I looked more into it and found the article below which explicitly calls out Georgian England.

https://nypost.com/2018/02/13/banned...-be-auctioned/

[Puupi]

That was my first instinct as well, which is why I made the "not sure if serious" comment. The linked article doesn't mention anything about where it was published though and the founding of Georgia the US colony coincides closely with the date the book was published so I looked more into it and found the article below which explicitly calls out Georgian England.

https://nypost.com/2018/02/13/banned...-be-auctioned/

You can see where it's published right on the photo of the book. It says LONDON at the bottom.

[draynay]

Bah, this book tells me nothing I didn't already know.

[Puupi]

Bah, this book tells me nothing I didn't already know.

Oh, to me eating birds to get a stiff one was news.

[Mormolyce]

This is essentially an 18th Century version of Cleo.

That's the South for you.

It's referring to the Georgian period in England.

- - - Updated - - -

Bah, this book tells me nothing I didn't already know.

Well this explains my missing songbirds.

[Dhrizzle]

It's not all bad advice;

"I do advise, before they begin their conjugal embraces, to invigorate their mutual desires and make their flames burn with a fiercer ardour by those endearing ways that love can better teach than I can write,"

"And when they have done what nature can require, a man must have a care he does not part too soon from the embraces of his wife,"

[Super Kami Dende]

This just in, People 300 years ago did/thought weird shit.

I mean this book was literally written only a couple of decades after the Salem Witch Trials..