An explicit Western sex manual entitled Aristotle’s Masterpiece is set to go on auction.

The sex guide was described as the dirtiest book of the time when published in 1684 and is full of 17th-century erotica and graphic love-making tips.

This sex manual was sold secretly from under the counters of bookshops for centuries, and is now expected to fetch £10,000-£15,000 at auction next month, as Daily Mail reports.

The erotica guide contains a bizarre mix of superstition and sex facts, including information about ‘actions of the genitals’, ‘benefits of marriage’, women’s bodies, pregnancy and childbirth.

The book will be sold on March 2 by auctioneers Dominic Winter, which has described it as a ‘surprisingly good copy’ of the ‘most notorious sex manual of the age’.

One chapter, entitled ‘A word of advice to both sexes at the time of copulation’, advises men to ‘creep in by little and little’ to get their wives into bed, while another chapter advises that, in order to get a woman pregnant, the husband should not let ‘air strike into the open womb’ as this could ‘corrupt the seeds before they are perfectly mixed together’.