Author: Pallavicino, Ferrante [1615 - 1644]. 
Title: The WHORE'S RHETORICK, M. DC. LXXXIII
Description: Edinburgh: [J. Maidment], 1836. 1st edition thus, a 19th C. facsimile reprint of the 17th C. edition. Reputedly limited to 50cc. Publisher's (?) black half-leather binding with marbled paper boards; gilt stamping to spine. NB. We posit this as a publisher's binding, for we see at least one institutional holding describing a similar, if not identical, binding for their copy. xx, [30], 222 pp. T.p. printed in red and black with a vignette. "J. Maidment" penciled at the conclusion of the preface. Illustrated with 3 plates. Royal 8vo. 9-1/8" x 6-5/8". Average wear to binding. Front paste-down with evidence of bookplate removal. Ffep detached. A penned note to the ffep, dated 1836 & under an indeciperable signature, states: "Reprinted under the auspices of Charles Kirk Patrick Sharpe & James Maidment Esquires." Overall, Very Good. An English translation of "La Rettorica delle Puttan", published anonymously in 1643, now universally attributed to Ferrante Pallavicino. Pallavicino was notorious for his literary critiques of the Pope, and none was more notorious than La Retorica delle Puttane (The Rhetoric of Whores), which Edward Muir described as a 'scandalous anti-Jesuit work', which 'demonstrates why Pallavicino was the only Italian author of his epoch capable of a coherent vision that integrated satire, skepticism, and naturalistic morality.' La Retorica is written in the form of a dialogue between an aged prostitute and her naive apprentice. The older woman is sick, poor, and miserable because, she explains, she 'did not know to stop at rhetoric, wanting to go on to learn philosophy.' Muir explains, 'By 'rhetoric,' she means the arts of simulation and dissimulation, which would have brought her pleasure and riches, without danger, while philosophy, with its pretension to discovering truth, has brought her the ruin of emotional authenticity.' The fifteen lessons of the old whore were based on Cipriano Suarez's De Arte Rhetorica, the manual used in Jesuit schools. Muir pointedly notes, 'By systematically pursuing the parallels between rhetorical persuasion and erotic seduction, Pallavicino demonstrates how the high art of rhetoric has the same instrumental character as the lowly deceptions of the prostitute.'" [Wiki] All editions rare in the marketplace.

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