The first French translation of Nefzawi's "Perfumed Garden"

Nefzawi, Muhammad ibn Muhammad / Terme, Antonin (transl.). Al-rawd al-'atir fi nuzhat al-khatir [The Perfumed Garden].

€ 65.000,00

An exceptionally rare manuscript combining the Arabic text and the first French translation of Nefzawi's 15th century erotic manual, "Al-rawd al-'atir fi nuzhat al-khatir" ("The Perfumed Garden of Sensual Delight"). Meticulously prepared, the manuscript opens with a poem in honour of "la Mauresque Nefissah", who co-translated the work with the French officer Antonin Terme. This is followed by a large original photograph of a woman lying on a lion's skin (possibly Nefissah herself), a coloured title-piece that gives the names of the work, author and translator, and the Arabic text (63 ff.).

The translation, likewise running from right to left in the Arabic style, opens with a French title-piece, followed by Terme's dedication to the poet Joséphin Soulary, a preface and table of contents, the translated text, and a glossary. The volume is beautifully bound by the celebrated French bookbinder Léon Gruel.

Nefzawi wrote the "The Perfumed Garden" in the 15th century for his patron Muhammad ibn 'Awana Zawawi. In twenty-one chapters, the book provides sexual advice and remedies in the guise of folk tales resembling those in the Thousand and One Nights. The book first received recognition in France through manuscripts which became available after the French occupation of North Africa, and various translations were made in the half of the 18th century.

The present version, considered the earliest French one, was made by the military officer Antonin Cathélin Terme (ca. 1830-1902) during his time in Tunisia, in collaboration with a local woman named Nefissah. According to an editorial note in the printed edition published in 1935 (p. 255f.), Terme produced two manuscripts: one for himself and one for his friend, the Lyon-based poet Joséphin Soulary (1815-91); the 1935 publication was based on a third MS copied in 1875 from Terme's own specimen at his home in Brussels. Presumably, the example at hand is the one Terme gifted to Soulary, as it includes Terme's autographed and signed dedication letter before the French text.