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

Description de l'isle des Hermaphrodites, newly discovered, containing the manners, customs & ordinances of the inhabitants of this island, as well as the discourse of Jacophile to Limne, with some 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 devoid of frontispiece. Contemporary binding in full light brown leather; boards with a triple gold-ruled border. 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 reside effeminate characters, devoted to festivities, pleasures, disordered lives, governed by a Henry III imagined as King of the Hermaphrodites, defined as Queen-woman or Man–queen.