LUCINA SINE CONCUBITU: a letter humbly addressed to the Royal Society.
With 3 engravings on copper by Hester Sainsbury. Pp. [iv]+42(last blank)+[2](colophon, blank), frontispiece and 2 plates, cockerel device on title page; narrow cr. 8vo; qr. parchment, spine lettered in gilt, patterned papered boards, spine faintly discoloured, fore-corners of boards a trifle rubbed; t.e.g., others uncut; book label of David Levine, Sydney, and bookseller's sticker on upper pastedown, the free endpapers lightly offset, upper hinge tender, short closed tear to fore-edge pp. 3/4; The Golden Cockerel Press, Waltham Saint Lawrence, 1930. Edition limited to 500 numbered copies on English hand-made paper. Chanticleer 70. *Written and published in 1750 by the botanist John Hill under the pseudonym Abraham Johnson. Hill was engaged in a campaign of criticism and derision against the Royal Society after he failed to gain membership of the Society. In this satirical text, the fictitious doctor 'Abraham Johnson' claimed to prove 'by most Incontestable Evidence, drawn from Reason and Practice, that a Woman may conceive and be brought to Bed without any Commerce with Man'. Item #162737
Price: $200.00