LA SCIENCE SECRETE
Book Details + Condition: Self-published by the author, Henri Durville (Paris). Scarce First Edition, 1923. Written in the original French language. 893 pages, followed by advertisements. The original softcover has been bound in hardcover, which sports hand-marbled boards and real snakeskin (appears to be python) binding. LA SCIENCE SECRETE [The Secret Science] is an exhaustive tome that includes the study of the occult and other secret sciences in China, Asia, India, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece; Buddhism; The mysteries of Isis and Osiris; The Pyramids; Pythagoras; Jesus; the Gnostics; Freemasonry; Alchemy; Rosicrucians; and so much more. The author was a writer, psychotherapist, and son of occult publisher Hector Durville. He was born in 1888, in Paris. He founded the International Psychical Society and (with his father Hector and brother Gaston) edited the Journal du Magnétisme, originally founded by Baron du Potet. Durville wrote a number of books and organized international study conferences on animal magnetism. Tight binding; rubbed corners and edges; shelf wear to outer hard boards, including nicks to hand-marbled papers, a bit of the rear paper removed, with repaired tears; slight warping to outer hard boards - mainly to rear board, with minimal warping to last few interior pages; interior is clean and free of markings.
