[Learned Flatulence]. [Martí, Manuel].

Oratio pro Crepitu Ventris Habita ad Patres Crepitante [i.e., Accademia degli Arcadi] ab E. M. E. A. D. [i.e., Emanuele Martino, Ecclesiae Alonensis Decano].

Regio-Brigae [Madrid?]: Ex Officina Aethonis [i.e., J. de Zuñiga?], 1737. First edition. 8vo (6.63 x 4.38 inches), early calf, [2], 28 pages plus blanks. Calf a bit dried out and somewhat rubbed; some foxing; a good to very good copy. Item #22620

A well-known instance of a mock-scholarly treatment of the history and benefits of farting, a supposed sermon from the Spanish scholar and Dean of the Cathedral of Alicante, Manuel Martí y Zaragoza (1663-1737), most likely composed while Martí was in Rome at the end of the 17th century and first published posthumously the year of his death. Subsequently collected under a 1738 Amsterdam imprint of J. Wetstenium & G. Smith, Emmanuelis Martini . . . Epistolarum libri duodecim, and evidently not published in Spanish until 1766. This version not located on the Spanish collective catalog REBIUN. OCLC and Library Hub Discover each note only the Wellcome copy. See Bibliotheca Scatologica 109, noting only the “Cosmopoli” 1768 edition. This copy with the Duke of Sussex (1773-1843) bookplate on the front pastedown, which would thus seem to make the copy that appeared in Part V of the Evans sale of the Bibliotheca Sussexiana in April, 1845, where it was lotted with a copy of the 1572 Basel Stultifera Navis.

Price: $3,800.00