Rare collection of popular farcical texts, inspired by the Facetiae (1474) of the Italian humanist Poggio Bracciolini. Poggio wrote anti-clerical, bawdy and obscene stories, that enjoyed great popularity in the 16th century. He thereby showed that Latin was flexible enough to be written as a living language. His stories were soon imitated all over Europe. A collection of 12 titles, first published in 1600, was later placed on the Papal Index. The present collection, published by Augustin Ferber, increases the number of titles to 17. It mainly consists of mock medical dissertations and disputations and macaronic poetry about sex and drinking.
Of particular interest are: Disputatio inauguralis, a mock disputation on the social law of drinking, with Bacchus as praeses and written by "Blasius Multibibus", a pseudonym often attributed to Richard Brathwait, who would translate this work into English in 1617 as A solemne joviall disputation, theoreticke and practicke; briefly shadowing the law of drinking; Delineatio summorum capitum lustitudinis studenticae, a burlesque and facetious macaronic Latin/German poem about students visiting brothels; and Discursus methodicus de peditu ejusque speciebus crepitus & visio (Methodical discourse on farting, and its species, sound and appearance), "this is the most elaborate case of intellectual in-joking on a scatological topic that I have so far found" (B.C. Bowen, "The 'honourable art of farting' in continental Renaissance literature", in: Fecal matters in early modern literature and art, 2017).
With the bookplate of the neurologist Willem Albert Hofman (1915-2002) and some early underscoring in text. A very good copy, with only the paste-downs coming loose. Erman & Horn, Bibl. deutsche Univ. I, 7411; VD17 23:259247G; cf. Camden House history of German literature IV, p. 309; Gay & Lemmonyer II, cols. 215-216 (other eds.).