A discourse on the worship of Priapus, and its connections with the mystic theology of the ancients. By Richard Payne Knight, Esq. (a new edition). To which is added an essay on the worship of the generative powers during the Middle Ages of Western Europe.

London: Privately Printed, 1894. Hardcover. See Description. Tall 4to. (32.5 cm), pp. [4], xvi, 254 with 40 plates and a facsimile of the 1786 title page. Large paper copy #19 of 50 from a limited edition of 500.The preface states: "the present edition, an exact reproduction of that of 1865, but correcting some manifest misprints, is published in the interest of science and scholarship." Bound in later plain black cloth showing rubbing and wear to extremities and to the spine caps. The first few leaves including the title contain a small dark stain near the upper edge. Pages show periodic smudging/soiling; several plates have a damp stain on the outer edge of the margin; occasional edge tears are professionally sealed; 3-4 leaves are carefully tipped back in to place. Richard Payne Knight (1750-1824) was a classical scholar, mythologist and a collector of antiquities. His "Discourse on the worship of Priapus" was first published in London, 1786. Knight argues that a universal system of phallic worship and phallic symbolism existed across most ancient cultures. Comparisons are given between Greco-Roman mythology, classical mystery religions, Neo-Platonism, Orphism, Egyptian and Near Eastern mythology, Indian religions etc. The work was considered scandalous in its day and it caused the author lasting difficulties. The plates depict examples of phallic imagery in ancient and medieval art – i.e. in reliefs, statuary, coins, monuments and architecture. [Goodland, Biblio. of sex rites, p. 328 listing the 1865 printing].