«Merge Record #»«Title» - Schulz-Falster Rare Books

SWEDENBORG, Emanuel. Delitiæ Sapientiæ, de Amore Conjugali;
post quas sequuntur Voluptates Insaniæ de Amore Scortatorio.
Amsterdam, 1768. £ 1200
4to, pp. 328 ([2] blank); with woodcut head-piece and large initial on p.
[3] and woodcut tail-piece on p. 328; small hole at inner blank edge of
title, spotting towards end, light browning throughout; with manuscript
notes at foot of p. 194; modern marbled boards; a good copy, entirely
uncut.
First edition of this rare treatise by Swedenborg, published four years before his
death. The work is now a classic of mystical and philosophical love, describing 'how
the understanding and will of man and wife may be conjoined by marriage into one -
a conjunction resulting in eternal states of innocence, peace and happiness. The love
which is the soul of marriage originates from the union of the Divine Love and the
Divine Wisdom. This love is therefore celestial, spiritual and holy above all other
loves, and after death remains with everyone such as it was in the world'.
Swedenborg considered that 'the celestial beatitudes, the spiritual satisfactions, and
from these the natural delights' emanated from the love of a man and woman within
marriage (trans, p. 457). He: 'Explains the origin and essentially sacred character of
love between a man and a woman in marriage as related to the marriage of good and
truth in the Lord, the union of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. This definitive work
on love and marriage describes the eternal quality of the conjugal state, and it also
discusses the nature of human sexuality and the spiritual consequences of such
disorders as adultery and deviant conduct' (N. Bruce Rogers, translator of the
modern English version of the work).
Hyde 2400; OCLC lists copies at Stanford, UCLA, Yale, Union College, Toronto,
Glasgow only.
The Delights of Conjugal Love
76.
SWEDENBORG, Emanuel. Traité curieux des charmes de l'amour
conjugal dans ce monde et dans l'autre. … traduit du Latin en
Français par M. de Brumore. Berlin and Basle, George-Jacques & J.
Henri Decker, 1784. £ 600
12mo, pp. [iv], 206; some spotting and browning at beginning and end,
due to paper quality; contemporary calf-backed pastepaper boards,
spine gilt, gilt-lettered spine label, with armorial bookplate with
monogram CIVLR and motto 'Mors est vita sine literis' to verso of front
free endpaper.