Book Details + Condition: University Books (New Hyde Park, NY). First American Edition, 1961. By Sir E.A. Wallis Budge. Hardcover. Large octavo. 543 pages with advertisements. Beige cloth spine with patterned paper boards, and gilt lettering to spine. Includes 22 plates and 300 illustrations in text, with Index. Firm binding; light wear to extremities; slight discoloration to boards; scuffing to inside boards; interior is clean and free of markings. The first US edition of this monumental work on amulets and talismans which was originally published under the title "Amulets and Superstitions" in 1930. The full title of the original edition offers more description: "Amulets and Superstitions: The Original Texts with translations and descriptions of a long series of Egyptian, Sumerian, Assyrian, Hebrew, Christian, Gnostic and Muslim Amulets and Talismans and Magical Figures, with chapters on the Evil Eye, the Origin of the Amulet, the Pentagon, the Swastika, the Cross (Pagan and Christian), the Properties of Stones, Rings, Divination, Numbers, the Kabbalah, Ancient Astrology, etc." The author, E. A. Wallis Budge, is famous as the then-Keeper of the Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities in the British Museum and one of the great scholars of ancient custom and belief. Although the work was first published over 90 years ago it is still one of the most comprehensive works on the subject.
