Jacques-Louis MOREAU
Histoire naturelle de la femme, suivie d'un traité d'hygiène
Chez L. Duprat • Letellier|à Paris 1803|12 x 20 cm|3 volumes reliés
First edition, illustrated with 11 plates, 7 of which are folding (anatomy, hermaphrodite sex, Hottentot...).
Contemporary full sheep binding with root grain. Smooth spine decorated with compartments à la grotesque. Beige morocco title and volume labels. Cold-tooled roll frame on boards. Upper joint cracked at head of volume I, and lower joint cracked at head and foot. A lack at head of volume III. Rather good copy, fresh.
Without prejudice for the period, and judging things essentially as a naturalist, observing and comparing facts to his knowledge, this history of woman, not only through history but according to nations (the Hottentots are often studied) is fascinating in more ways than one, notably because the author never falls into pure naturalism but always questions the relationship of a fact to all the components of the feminine being, components as much social, vestimentary, cultural as traditional and physical. The hygiene treatise forming the third volume is a physiological treatise, Moreau analyzing the consequences of this physiology on behavior, sensitivity and feminine particularities.
Contemporary full sheep binding with root grain. Smooth spine decorated with compartments à la grotesque. Beige morocco title and volume labels. Cold-tooled roll frame on boards. Upper joint cracked at head of volume I, and lower joint cracked at head and foot. A lack at head of volume III. Rather good copy, fresh.
Without prejudice for the period, and judging things essentially as a naturalist, observing and comparing facts to his knowledge, this history of woman, not only through history but according to nations (the Hottentots are often studied) is fascinating in more ways than one, notably because the author never falls into pure naturalism but always questions the relationship of a fact to all the components of the feminine being, components as much social, vestimentary, cultural as traditional and physical. The hygiene treatise forming the third volume is a physiological treatise, Moreau analyzing the consequences of this physiology on behavior, sensitivity and feminine particularities.
€900