[ BURTON, Sir Richard ] translates Sheikh Nefzaoui Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Nafzawi].

The Perfumed Garden of the Sheikh Nefzaoui Or the Arab Art of Love, XVIth Century, Translated from the French Version of the Arabian MS. [ Cheikh Nefzaoui ].

Cosmopoli: NP: "For Private Circulation Only" 1886. First Pirated Edition. Hardcover. Octavo xvi + 256 pp. Original vellum boards with beveled edges. Gilt border and filigree style corner pieces to front board, the same design in blind on the back board. Gilt titling to spine. Title-page printed in red and violet ink, text printed in violet ink, the capitals of each chapter and the various head and tail-pieces in red. The first pirated edition of Burton's translation of "The Scented Garden" probably published in Paris or Brussels. According to Penzer's "An Annotated Bibliography of Sir Richard Francis Burton" (pp. 174-175) the book was first published under the Kama Shastra Society imprint in 1886 - first in parts, and then as a single volume. This pirated edition, published later the same year, is a close copy of the single volume Kama Shastra edition, save for a number of small differences (the wording on the title-page is slightly different, this volume is printed in violet rather than black ink, and has some additional decorations not found in the original editions). The book is a translation of is a fifteenth-century Arabic sex manual and work of erotic literature "The Perfumed Garden of Sensual Delight" by Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Nafzawi. In addition to commentary on male and female sexual attributes, techniques for sex, etc., it has a section on the interpretation of dreams and a number of related stories, which Burton felt to be of considerable literary merit. Aleister Crowley was deeply impressed by Burton, and doubtless modelled his own "Scented Garden" in part at least on this work. Vellum boards splayed, as is common, and upper half of the vellum somewhat darkened (presumably this is a later accretion although it is possible though less likely that it is an artefact of the original vellum sheet). Spine gently mottled and dulled. A little shadowing to the endpapers, otherwise a solid, internally clean, VG+ copy. Item #59997

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