Rare Books on Magic

Abstract

AN exhibition of old and rare works dealing with magic, witchcraft, legerdemain and kindred sub jects was opened on December 6 and was on view until December 14 at the University of London Council of Psychical Investigation, 13D Roland Gardens, South Kensington, London, S.W.7. Five hundred items had been selected for exhibition out of the 12,000 volumes collected by Mr. Harry Price, the honorary secretary of the Council, forming what is probably the largest and most important assemblage of printed works relating to occult subjects available for the student. The books exhibited ranged in date from about 1490 to the present day, though, curiously enough, the “Malleus Maleficarum” (1488), the first printed work on witchcraft, and the Bible of the witch finder, was not represented by a copy earlier than 1576. Works dealing with magic and the witch, ghosts and spiritual manifestations generally, of the sixteenth, seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries are becoming increasingly rare and expensive, and many of them in a few year's time will be unobtainable. A specialised library of the size of that of the Council for Psychical Investiga tion is, therefore, of great importance for the psycho logist and the social historian. In looking through any extensive range of books such as this, it is significant to note how slow has been the growth in appreciation of the nature of evidence when any element of the supernatural has been implicated in an investigation. Although early works, such as Lavater's “Ghostes and Spirites Walking by nyghte …” (1572) and Scot's “The Discoverie of Witchcraft” are thoroughly sceptical, it was not until 1668, in the work of the Rev. Joseph Glanville, fellow of the Royal Society and virtually the father of psychical research, that anything in the nature of a systematic setting out of evidence was attempted.