Hell, just deleting everything to reply took me like a minute just now.

I am happy to report that yes, I did read the whole thing and it was very interesting. Maybe I should have bought that fancy facsimile of a 16th century edition after all... though on the other hand, your quotes and summary, despite the awesome quotable bits, do also make me wonder if I'd ever have the stamina to make my way through the whole thing (especially in the font they used in there). Kudos for that.

But yeah, it's definitely a huge classic and hugely influential on late medieval literature and thinking - when I read Huizinga's cultural history classic "The Waning of the Middle Ages", you couldn't go two pages without a reference to it.

Regarding the explicit sexual advice, I don't know enough details to comment in depth, but it doesn't really sound that surprising - some parts of the Middle Ages at least were indeed rather more open about sex, just look at Chaucer. And France always was more open-minded than most other countries (I'm still kind of awed by the way Louis XIV took the maitresse-en-titre concept to a whole new level - the 17th century wasn't the Middle Ages anymore, and England was also rather libertine at the time, but still). But no doubt you're right and it did serve as practical advice for many generations of lovers. And the "coilles" thing is hilarious.