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The Roman poet Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso,
43 B.C. - A.D c. 17) wrote his Ars Amatoria
of The Art of Love around the time of
Christ.
The book was described as an "immoral
book" representing the art of love
as "the adulterer's art rather than
the husband's art" by Irish writer
H. Montgomery Hyde in A History of Pornography.
But the book won the praise of Renaissance
humanists. It begins with the words -
"Should anyone here not know the art of
love read this, and learn by reading how to
love. By art the boat’s set gliding, with
oar and sail, by art the chariot’s swift:
love’s ruled by art."
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