Nicolas Chorier

• Illustration — 1757 Latin edition of The School of Women The School of Women first appeared as a work in Latin entitled Aloisiae Sigaeae, Toletanae, Satyra sotadica de arcanis Amoris et Veneris. This manuscript claimed that it was originally written in Spanish by Luisa Sigea de Velasco, an erudite poet and maid of honor at the court of Lisbon and was then translated into Latin by Jean or Johannes Meursius, a humanist professor teaching history in Leiden, Holland since 1610. The attribution to Sigea was a lie and Meursius' involvement was a complete fabrication. The manuscript circulated through the libertine community at the beginning of the eighteenth century and was known in Latin under many different titles. It was translated into French many times, including one translation by Jean Terrasson in 1750, and was also translated into English. The book is written in the form of a series of dialogues with Tullia, a twenty-six-year-old Italian woman, the wife of Callias, who is charged with the sexual initiation of her young cousin, Ottavia, to whom she declares, "Your mother asked me to reveal to you the most mysterious secrets of the bridal bed and to teach you what you must be with your husband, which your husband will also be, touching these small things which so strongly inflame men's passion. This night, so that I can teach you above all in a freer language, we will sleep together in my bed, which I would like to be able to say will have been the softest of Venus's lace."

• 1660: Aloisiae Sigeae Toletanae Satyra sotadica de arcanis Amoris et Veneris; Aloisia Hispanice scripsit; Latinitate donavit Ioannes Meursius. Gratianopoli (imprint is fictitious) • 1678 (ca.): Aloisiae Sigaeae Toletanae Satyra sotadica de arcanis Amoris & Veneris... accessit colloquium ante hac non editum, Fescennini, ex m.s. recens reperto. Editio nova, emendatior & auctior. Amstelodami (or rather Geneva?) • 1757: Joannis Meursii Elegantiae Latini sermonis seu Aloisia Sigæa Toletana de arcanis Amoris et Veneris; adjunctis fragmentis quibusdam eroticis. Lugduni Batavorum: Ex typis Elzevirianis [or rather, Paris: Barbou] • 1969: Des secrets de l'amour et de Vénus, satire sotadique de Luisa Sigea, de Tolède, par Nicolas Chorier, préface d'André Berry. Éditions l'Or du Temps • 1999: L'Académie des dames ou la Philosophie dans le boudoir du Grand Siècle; dialogues érotiques présentés par Jean-Pierre Dubost. Arles: Éditions Philippe Picquier • 2021: School of Women; Sunny Lou Publishing,