De l'utilité de la flagellation dans la médecine et dans les plaisirs du mariage, et des fonctions des lombes et des reins : $b ouvrage singulier

This surprising little treatise, newly rendered from its original Latin, brings together a once‑obscure 17th‑century discussion of flogging as both a medical remedy and a marital aid. The translator has cleaned the text of the many printing errors that plagued earlier editions and added a wealth of historical, literary, and scientific notes that illuminate the practices and beliefs of the period.

The work examines how prescribed blows were thought to stimulate the back, the kidneys and other vital parts, drawing on contemporary physicians such as Meibomius and on classical writers from Petronius to Ovid. It also surveys the moral arguments of the time, citing figures like de Lignac and Tissot, while peppering the prose with witty excerpts from Boileau and Brantôme.

Listeners will find a blend of scholarly rigor and lively commentary that makes the manuscript feel more like a conversation with early modern doctors than a dry manual. It offers a window into the uneasy intersection of health, pleasure, and social norms at the dawn of modern medicine.