Aristotle's Complete Master Piece [BOUND WITH THREE OTHER WORKS]. In three parts: displaying the secrets of nature in the generation of man. Regularly digested into Chapters and Sections, rendering it far more useful and easy than any yet extant. To which is added, a treasure of health; or the family physician: Being Choice and Approved Remedies for all the several Distempers incident to Human Bodies. The twenty-eighth edition

A composite collection of works dealing with sexuality, childbirth, medicine, astrology, and other subjects, comprising four works. Each work is preceded by a woodcut frontispiece, the first showing a woman, whose body is entirely covered by hair, and a black boy. The second has a scene showing midwives attending a woman who has just given birth. The third and fourth both show Aristotle (in contemporary dress) sitting in his study. The second work has a folding sheet showing the fetus' position in the womb. The first has small woodcuts showing conjoined twins and deformities. Bound in contemporary calf, rebacked, the boards ruled in gold (corners bumped, light wear to boards, very subtle repairs). The text is in very good condition, a bit shaken, slight rounding to the corners, a burn hole in one leaf, occ. dog-earing, some margins cut close, just touching the text in a few instances. In the "Master-Piece" there is a light stain in inner margin of leaf B8, a clean tear in the lower margin of leaf C2 (just entering the text, without loss), and a natural paper flaw in the corner of leaf C5. In the "Experienc'd Midwife", the folding leaf with the woodcut has a number of creases and folds, including one along the fold in the image (no loss). The same leaf has a long, closed tear, far from the image, with no loss. The headline of the leaf is slightly shaved. There is burn hole in one leaf (E9) with loss to a few words and a nickel-sized area of discoloration. In the "Book of Problems", there is a small hole in the upper margin (not affecting the text.) These treatises on pregnancy, childbirth, sexuality, folk science, and home medicine, trading on the name of Aristotle, appeared individually and then in collected editions throughout the 18th century, mostly in undated editions. Due to the alluring nature of some of the texts (the "Master-Piece" and "Legacy" had pornographic content) and the utilitarian function of the midwives' manual, all printings are uncommon and rarely found complete. Some of the collected editions also featured a general title page (not called for here). The first work in the volume, "Aristotle's Masterpiece", was an extraordinarily popular guide to sex and pregnancy, designed for the patients who could not afford professional medical care. Originally published in 1684, it was published and pirated into the 19th century. The frontispiece was one of very few erotic images available to the common reader. The "Master-Piece" "was the most popular book about women's bodies, sex, pregnancy, and childbirth in Britain and America from its first appearance in 1684 up to at least the 1870s. It was not written by Aristotle, it was assembled from a number of popular medical works . . . and is a bizarre assortment of superstition, folklore, and sex facts and fancies, all mixed in with the sort of common-sense medical advice that had been passed down by midwives for centuries."(Fissell, Mary E. "Hairy Women and Naked Truths", pp. 46-64) The second work in the volume is a childbirth manual covering the entire process from conception through pregnancy, labor, and birth. There are instructions for performing complicated deliveries, caring for newborn babies and older children, and contending with stillborn children. The folding plate shows the position of a baby in the womb. The third is a collection of pseudo-Aristotelian questions "How comes it that the heart is continually moving?, "Why do beasts move their ears and not man?", "Why are the lips moveable?", "Why do fish not make a sound?", "Why do madmen's arms become slender?", "Why have men not as great breasts as women?" The fourth is a work on human reproduction and women's sexual health, with detailed descriptions of genitalia, sexual intercourse, and venereal disease. Written for midwives, it is a re-arrangement of relevant chapters from the "Masterpiece". Chapters include "Of Virginity. its Signs and Tokens", "Of the Organs of Generation in Women", "Of the Use and Act.…