Musée royal de Naples: Peintures, Bronzes et Statues érotiques du Cabinet secret

Very good copy of the best edition of Famin's catalogue of erotic art in the secret cabinet at Naples.

With 60 hand-coloured plates engraved by A. Delvaux and protected by tissue guards.

The plates show phallic sculptures and graffiti, Priapic bronze figures and gods, excited votive amulets, extraordinary winged phalli, as well as frescos depicting fauns and bacchantes, satyrs and nymphs, hermaphrodites, bed scenes with slaves in attendance, Apollo and a nymph, Venus and Cupid, and the famous acrobatic "rope dancers."

When King Francis I of Naples visited the Pompeii exhibition at the Naples National Archaeological Museum with his wife and daughter in 1819, he was embarrassed by the erotic artwork and ordered it to be locked away in a "secret cabinet." For most of the 19th century, the specimens could only be viewed by gentlemen scholars by appointment. Famin was granted access to the museum when he was posted to Naples as part of the French consulate, and wrote this catalog of some of the exhibits.

When first published in 1832, it had only 41 uncoloured plates. The present edition with 60 plates, often found uncoloured too, has remained famous and was republished privately in 1857, 1871 and 1959.

César Famin (1799-1853) was a historian and diplomat. A prolific writer, he wrote several histories of Chile and South America, the Sicilian Revolution of 1820, the Saracen Invasion of Italy from the 7th to 9th centuries, etc.

Bound in black cloth with green leather title label on spine, gilt bands, some scattered spotting and a few professional repairs to text pages, bright and vibrant hand-coloured plates, some with slight age-toning.