SEALED 1973 THE GNOSTICS & THEIR REMAINS, Ancient and Mediaeval — C. King, 2nd

  GNOSTICS & THEIR REMAINS, ANCIENT AND MEDIAEVAL — by Charles William King — 2nd Edition 1973 — IN VERY RARE ORIGINAL SHRINK WRAP

 Publisher: Wizards Bookshelf, Minneapolis (1973)

MINT CONDITION — SEALED IN ORIGINAL SHRINK WRAP. Hardcover. Octavo. xxiv + 472 pp. Green cloth with silver titling to spine and silver titling and illustration upper board, frontis, b&w illustrations, index. A reprint of the Second Edition of King's well-known work, with the additional notes to the bibliography. No dust jacket, as issued. Charles William King (1818 - 1888), was a Cambridge classical scholar and collector and authority on engraved gems. In the mid-19th century, King gathered together all the then-available information on Gnosticism and the movements that he felt drew from it and published it in this work. The books stretches from early Gnosticism, through the magicians and Kabbalists of mediaeval Europe, the Templars, Rosicrucians, Illuminati and Freemasons. In the course of the work he also explores the Greek and Roman use of amulets, magical spells and talismans, and branches out into such bypaths as Masons' marks, and the story of Simon Magus. It is a testament to the quality of his research that despite the passage of time, and the limited sources on which he relied, the work is still perceived as having considerable authority.