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What did people trust to stir desire—and what did they turn to when they wanted it quiet?
In Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs, John Davenport gathers accounts from earlier physicians, travellers and scholars about substances said to awaken or restrain desire. Foods, spices, plants, animal products and charms enter the picture. His subject brings old medicine into contact with folklore and religion, revealing beliefs about human passion.
Published in 1869, the book belongs to a world where writings on sexual matters circulate privately among small circles of readers. Davenport approaches this guarded subject as a collector of curious knowledge. Read his gathering of claims as a record of history and custom, not as medical advice: many lack support from modern medicine, and some substances can cause harm.
What you’ll discover
- A guarded Victorian subject Explore sexual lore gathered in a century that speaks of sex through careful hints.
- Remedies rooted in belief Meet foods, plants and charms that earlier cultures trust to influence desire.
- The other side of passion Discover beliefs about quieting desire, alongside claims about stirring it.
- Voices from earlier writings Follow Davenport through accounts by physicians, travellers and scholars with different sources of knowledge.
- History rather than prescriptions Examine old claims with curiosity while keeping belief distinct from reliable medical guidance.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this book if you love curious history, odd customs, old medicine and the stories of kings, monks and quacks.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Desire connects belief and medicine
- Creating life was once sacred
- Old customs found Christian names
- The mind shapes bodily failure
- Fear can sustain its own proof
- Humiliation makes a useless test
- Hope gives remedies their appeal
- Powerful promises can conceal harm
- Hope and fear outrun evidence
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Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs
by John Davenport · 1869
In old France, a couple accused of failing in bed must prove themselves before a panel of doctors and matrons.
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In short
What would you do if a court ordered a husband and wife to prove their marriage in front of doctors and midwives? In seventeenth century France this was real law, and it was called the Congress.
Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs at a glance
- Reading time
- About 2 h 50 min2 h 15 min fast, 3 h 25 min slow
- Length
- 40,900 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1869by John Davenport
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Ancient peoples honoured the power to create life
Davenport opens with a claim about the ancient world. Peoples of remote times looked at nature mainly through its power to make new life, and they honoured its symbols as holy. They felt no shame about these images. Modern modesty, he says, reads indecency into what the ancients saw as nature's own design.
The chief symbol was the phallus. Davenport follows it through Egypt, Syria, Persia, Greece and Italy, and says it was still found in India. There it appears as the Linga, a plain pillar, beside the Yoni, the female emblem. Hindus long for children, because sons perform the rites that ease their ancestors. Husbands of barren wives send them to the Linga to pray. When a papal envoy banned the wedding jewel called the taly among Christian converts, the women refused to give it up, and the missionaries settled the quarrel by engraving a cross on it.
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- 15-minute summary
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Details
- First published
- 1869
- Language
- English
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Davenport, John. Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/aphrodisiacs-and-anti-aphrodisiacs.
Davenport, J. (2026). Aphrodisiacs and anti-aphrodisiacs. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/aphrodisiacs-and-anti-aphrodisiacs (Original work published 1869)
Davenport, John. Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/aphrodisiacs-and-anti-aphrodisiacs.
@book{davenport2026aphrodisiacs,
author = {Davenport, John},
title = {Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/aphrodisiacs-and-anti-aphrodisiacs},
note = {First published 1869}
}
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What is Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs about?
It is a set of three essays by John Davenport on fertility worship, impotence and sterility, and the foods, drugs and customs people used to arouse or cool desire across ancient and early modern history.
Who was John Davenport?
He was an English writer who died in 1877. He compiled this book from physicians, travellers, poets and legal records, adding his own comments and jokes to a collection of curious facts.
What was the Judicial Congress in this book?
It was a French court procedure in which a couple accused of impotence had to try intercourse before experts. Davenport describes it, gives several cases, and explains why a decree ended it in 1677.
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