Themidore Histoire Galante. Premiere [-Seconde] Partie

Lyon: s.n., 1764. Later 19th-century polished green calf-backed marbled paper boards.

A PORNOGRAPHIC BESTSELLER - banned on issue and placed on the Index eighty-two years later. More than a dozen editions (earliest dated 1744), including translations, appeared by 1800, many with false imprints.
The story follows Thermidore and Rozette's passionate love affair. When they are discovered, Rozette is sent to a convent, while Thermidore seeks solace in brothels. He dresses in a cassock to visit Rozette, who is eventually released. Thermidore was based on Président DuBois, who eventually sent the printer of the first edition to the Bastille. No copies of this edition in the U.S. In good condition, ?price inscription on the verso of the first flyleaf.
¶Gevrey, "Thémidore ou la confession subvertie" in La Confession et le Texte licencieux edd. Meise & Haquette 45-6; see Gay & Lemonnyer's Bibliographie des Ouvrages relatifs a l'amour, aux femmes, au mariage III: 1208-9 and Pia's Les livres de l'Enfer 739 and Weil's L'Interdiction du roman et la librairie 1728-1750 129,622; and Monselet's "Thémidore" in Les Galanteries du XVIIIe siècle 93-8.