The 1748 edition of Histoire de Dom B…, Portier des Chartreux (The Story of Dom Bougre, Porter of the Charterhouse) was the first to show a year of publication on the title page. Of its 21 anonymous engravings, again only the last one is not erotic. Eighteen portray the same scenes as those in the 1740 edition, but the illustrations are all newly engraved and more detailed. Most are very similar to those in the earlier volume, though two, Père André catching Saturnin masturbating, and Saturnin being received by the Carthusians, are completely different.

The 1748 Dom B… also includes three new images, two of them depicting more amorous episodes at the Celestine convent. The most interesting of the three is the frontispiece, titled ‘L’auteur rempli de son sujet’ (The Author Full of his Subject), in which an ecclestiastic, encouraged by the satyr standing at his elbow, is working on the manuscript of Dom B…, quill in one hand and cock in the other.

In the tradition of avoiding French censorship, the 1748 edition was nominally published by a Monsieur Trotener from the Cigognes (Stork) publishing house in Frankfurt, Germany.

We are very grateful to our Texan colleague Phyllis Eccleston for the research and images presented here.