L’abbé Casti - La Papesse - 1878

Abbé Casti. The Popeess. News in three parts and in verse; translated into French for the first time. Italian text on the opposite page. Paris, Isidore Liseux, 1878, 224 pages.
15x10 cm, 0.2 kg.
Print run of 550 copies. This one numbered 339.
Full morocco binding, Garidel (seal).

The Popeess is a satirical, libertine, and anti-clerical book by Abbé Giovanni Battista Casti (1724-1803), an Italian poet of the 18th century. His tale takes up the medieval legend of Pope Joan, the woman who, according to tradition, is said to have been elected pope under a male disguise before her gender was revealed. Casti does not aim to produce a historical work; instead he mocks the clergy, the Church, and religious hypocrisies, blending humor, eroticism, and social critique. The work lies within the anti-clerical and libertine tradition of the 18th century.