[SIR RICHARD BURTON 1821-1890]
Priapeia or the Sportive Epigrams of divers Poets on Priapus. Mounted india proof frontispiece; 4to, calf-backed marbled boards, rebacked, half-title detached, scattered foxing and toning throughout; endpapers renewed. Cosmopoli, 1890Number 13 of 500 copies printed for subscribers. Norman Penzer, Annotated Bibliography of Sir Richard Francis Burton, Mansfield, 1993, pages 150-53.Burton, the great English explorer, translator, writer, soldier, Middle Eastern scholar, ethnologist, linguist, poet, hypnotist, fencer and diplomat was quite candid about sexuality in his writings. Homosexuality was considered a criminal offense in Victorian England. Allegations, but no direct accusations of homosexuality, followed Burton throughout most of his life.