A report on Venus in the Cloister

Work of erotic fiction by the Abbé du Prat, which is a pseudonym for an unknown author.

- Venus in the Cloister

3 related topics with Alpha

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Sappho, the tenth Muse, fresco from Pompeii

Erotic literature

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Erotic literature comprises fictional and factual stories and accounts of eros (passionate, romantic or sexual relationships) intended to arouse similar feelings in readers.

Erotic literature comprises fictional and factual stories and accounts of eros (passionate, romantic or sexual relationships) intended to arouse similar feelings in readers.

Sappho, the tenth Muse, fresco from Pompeii
Portrait by Jacob Huysmans of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, a notorious author of erotic verse
Illustration by Maurice Ray for Pierre Louÿs's Aphrodite: mœurs antiques
1757 Latin edition of the Dialogues of Luisa Sigea (first published c. 1660) by Nicholas Chorier
Title-page and frontispiece of The London Jilt; Or, the Politick Whore, London, 1683
Scene from chapter eight of Fanny Hill
Justine, or The Misfortunes of Virtue
Coverpage of a catalogue of books published by Charles Carrington (Paris, 1906)
The title page from the first volume of a Ming dynasty edition of The Embroidered Couch, one of the most notorious and controversial erotic novels.
Portrayal of Erotica at the library of Congress
Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies
Medallion portrait of Casanova, engraving by Berka, used as frontispiece for Icosameron (1788)
Cover of an undated American edition of Fanny Hill, c. 1910
Erotic literature going up in smoke and its distributors being put in jail, courtesy of Anthony Comstock's New York Society for the Suppression of Vice

The first conviction for obscenity in England occurred in 1727, when Edmund Curll was fined for the publication of Venus in the Cloister or The Nun in her Smock under the common law offence of disturbing the King's peace.

An auctioneer selling books from a hanged man, circa 1700. Curll got his start doing this kind of work in 1708.

Edmund Curll

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English bookseller and publisher.

English bookseller and publisher.

An auctioneer selling books from a hanged man, circa 1700. Curll got his start doing this kind of work in 1708.

In 1724, he published Venus in the Cloister, a translation of a mildly erotic French title of the previous century that argued that it is the church, and not Christ, that forbids sexual exploration.

Cover of an undated American edition of Fanny Hill, c. 1910

Obscenity

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Any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time.

Any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time.

Cover of an undated American edition of Fanny Hill, c. 1910
The 18th century book Fanny Hill has been subject to obscenity trials at various times (image: plate XI: The bathing party; La baignade)

The conviction in 1727 of Edmund Curll for the publication of Venus in the Cloister or the Nun in her Smock under the common-law offence of disturbing the peace appears to be the first conviction for obscenity in the United Kingdom, and set a legal precedent for other convictions.