ECOUTEZ LA VÉRITÉ ~ sur l’imperfection des femmes. [n.p., n.d., France or Low Countries, c. 1760-70s]
Folio broadside (430 × 348 mm). Letterpress text in typographic frame, surmounted by a large typographic headpiece incorporating numerous fleurons and a pair of medallions (profile heads of a man and a woman) beneath a coronet. Seven vertical and horizontal folds, early manuscript title to one panel on verso, traces of paste to another (perhaps where mounted in an album, or the remains of rudimentary wrapper. Old dampstaining and the paper rather soft, uncut edges fragile and with some tears, one or two small holes to folds.
A broadside catalogue of misogyny — with familiar and unfamiliar citations from Genesis, Augustine, Jonas, John Chrysostom, Gregory, Origen, Cato, Jerome, Tertullian, Plato and Pythagoras. Evidently intended as a satire it is known in more than one imprint, from France and from Ghent, but with only a small handful recorded in library collections. The Bibliothèque nationale holds two, one of which is digitised (having a woodcut, rather than typographical, headpiece).
The sheet apparently already had a central horizontal crease when placed under the press, resulting in a blank horizontal line across the centre, portions of the affected letters arranged (without loss) above and below.