T. Artus - Description de l'isle des Hermaphrodites - 1724

Description of the Isle of Hermaphrodites, newly discovered, containing the manners, customs & ordinances of the inhabitants of this isle, as well as the discourse of Jacophile to Limne, with a few other curious pieces. To serve as a supplement to the Journal of Henri III. In Cologne: at the Heirs of Herman Demen, 1724. Pp. (8), 352; cm. 17 x 10. A good copy, well preserved though lacking the frontispiece. Contemporary binding in full yellow-brown leather; boards with a triple gilt-ruled frame. The work is by Tomas Artus, a French author about whom little is known, but who became famous for this work, on the one hand bold, on the other very “curious.” Considered as the first French anti-utopia, the work tells of an imaginary journey of a Frenchman tired of the ills of his country, who describes an island where effeminate characters live, devoted to festivities, pleasures, disordered lives, governed by an imagined Henry III as King of the Hermaphrodites, defined as Queen-Man or Man-Queen.