Flagellation & the Flagellants. A history of the rod in all countries from the earliest period to the present time.

London: William Reeves, [c. 1900]. Revised edition. Octavo, finely bound in half crushed morocco over marbled papered boards, pp. xii; 544, small stain to marking of final leaf, illustrated.

An essential reference for both the practitioner and amateur enthusiast on all aspects of flagellation. Chapters are devoted to flagellation amongst the Jews, the Romans, the Carmelites, the Cistercians, the Franciscans, the Dominicans, the Jesuits, the Quakers, penal flagellation, flagellation in Scotland, flagellation in Eastern nations, in Russia, in Africa, in France, military flogging, flogging in the navy, domestic flagellation, on the whipping of young ladies, eccentric flagellation, “Birch in the boudoir” and so forth.

The author, a ‘Rev. William Cooper’, is in fact a pseudonym for British journalist James Glass Bertram (1824 – 1892).