THE OCCULT SCIENCES: THE PHILOSOPHY OF MAGIC, PRODIGIES, AND APPARENT MIRACLES
Book Details + Condition: Richard Bentley (London). First English Edition, 1846. Hardcover. Scarce. Complete in two volumes. Books measure 8.5" x 5.5". Pagination: 356 pp (Vol. I), 387 pp (Vol. II). First published as “Des sciences occultes ou Essai sur la Magie, les prodiges et les miracles” in two volumes in 1829. Translated from the French by Scottish doctor Anthony Todd Thomson, who also added notes to the text. The translator's note states, “a considerable portion of these volumes is occupied in tracing many of the extraordinary apparent miracles of antiquity to mechanical and scientific sources”. Complete two-volume set by French poet and politician Eusèbe Salverte, who was also a founding member of the Société française pour l'abolition de l'esclavage, an abolitionist movement founded in 1834. This work looks critically at the history and phenomena of magic, including miracles and thaumaturgy, oracles, religious sects, use of animals including poisons of serpents, drugs, meteorology, and more. Firm binding; rubbed corners and edges; some wear to boards, with browning present, and library labels to spines; stamps to ffep and Lending Library labels to inside front boards; old repair (tape) to last page of Preface; normal age-toned markings throughout.
