Produced by Turgut Dincer, Barry Abrahamsen, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) MANUAL OF Classical Erotology (De figuris Veneris) BY FRED. CHAS. FORBERG ------- LITERAL ENGLISH VERSION. [Illustration: Decoration] MANCHESTER One Hundred Copies PRIVATELY PRINTED FOR VISCOUNT JULIAN SMITHSON M. A., AND FRIENDS 1884 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NOTE One Hundred Copies only of this volume have been printed (all on the same paper and the type distributed) for Viscount Julian Smithson M. A., the Translator, and his Friends. None of these Copies are for Sale. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Foreword It is perhaps well to state at once that the “Manual of Classical Erotology” is intended only for Students of the Classics, Lawyers, Psychologists and Medical Men. Those persons, we think, who may peruse it as a means of awakening voluptuous sensations will be severely disappointed. Never did a work more serious issue from the press. Here we have no curious erotic story born of a diseased mind, but a cold, relentless analysis of those human passions which it is ever the object of Science to wrestle with and overthrow. As a basis also for the correct interpretation of the drama of the ancient world, Forberg’s studies are most valuable. Apart from that extraordinary book, Rosenbaum’s _History of the Esoteric Habits, Beliefs and Customs of Antiquity_, we know of no other compilation which casts so intense a search-light upon those Crimes, Follies and Perversions of the “Sixth Sense” which transformed the olden glory of Greece and Rome into a by-word and a reproach amongst the nations. The present English translation now offered to Scholars is entirely new and strictly exact. No liberties have been taken with the text. It was felt that any attempt to add more colour, or to increase the effect,—involving a departure from the lines of stern simplicity laid down by Forberg,—would have detracted from the scientific value and character of the work.