22 x 14.5 cm. 97 pages. With nine full-page illustrations based on drawings by Alfred Kubin. Dark brown, crassed original leather binding with spine title, gilt box, all-round gilt cover, and gilt head edges. Published as a private edition of only 50 copies for the members of the Munich Bibliophile Society. All copies were printed in names. This one is for Maximilian Brantl (1881-1951), a writer and lawyer who rose to prominence through his friendship with Hans Carossa, Heinrich, and Thomas Mann, whom he also represented as a lawyer. Panizza's main work is a radical anti-Catholic satire that explains the sudden emergence of syphilis at the end of the 15th century as a divinely commissioned work of the devil. "The Council of Love" was available in bookstores for only a few weeks. Following a review in the Allgemeine Zeitung, the police confiscated all copies available in Germany on January 8, 1895. The Munich public prosecutor's office took harsh action against the author, sentenced him to one year in solitary confinement and ordered him to pay the costs of the proceedings. The play's premiere didn't take place until 1967, 74 years after its original publication. A flawless copy.