SADUCISMUS TRIUMPHATUS: OR, FULL AND PLAIN EVIDENCE CONCERNING WITCHES AND APPARITIONS. IN TWO PARTS. THE FIRST TREATING OF THEIR POSSIBILITY. THE SECOND OF THEIR REAL EXISTENCE....
Glanvill, Joseph, et al.:
London: Printed by Tho. Newcomb, for S. Lownds..., 1682. [18],52,[12],162,[6],78,blank leaf,[14],273,[1],67,[3],5- 45,[17],24,[2]pp. with engraved frontis to each part, engraved plate at p. 23 of final part, and errata. Modern three quarter calf and marbled boards, gilt labels, to style. Tiny isolated wormhole in lower blank margin of text block, modest occasional tanning and a few isolated minor rust marks, otherwise a very good copy. A properly, and neatly, deaccessioned institutional duplicate, with tiny release stamp on verso of title and in blank portion of 3E2. One of two variants of this work denoted the "second edition," in this case conforming to ESTC R233939. Although the register is continuous, there are variations in the pagination of the constituent elements, as well in the imprint, distinguishing the two variants. Glanvill (1636-1680), who at an early age distinguished himself with THE VANITY OF DOGMATIZING (1661), was keenly interested in the phenomenon associated with witchcraft, and in 1667, published his initial work, PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS TOUCHING WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT. Through subsequent expanded editions, under various titles, it grew from that 62pp. pamphlet to become one of the most widely known works on witchcraft of its times. The first edition of this title appeared in 1681, and this second edition (in both variants) is enhanced by additional prefatory matter, as well as added sections by Antony Horneck and Henry More. "Glanvill was a voluminous author. His style is often admirable, not unfrequently recalling that of Sir Thomas Browne. His intellect was versatile, active, and sympathetic, but he is rather rhetorical than logical. In his dislike to the scholastic philosophy he followed Bacon and the founders of the Royal Society. Though he was in this direction a thorough- going sceptic, he was opposed to the materialism of Hobbes. His defence of witchcraft was the natural result of an attempt to find an empirical ground for a belief in the supernatural, and he formed with Henry More a virtual association for ‘psychical research'" - DNB. This work exerted some influence on Mather, and on various witch frenzies during subsequent decades; its continuing fashionability can be measured, in a way, by its occasional occurrence among the real and imaginary texts cited by H.P. Lovecraft in his works. ESTC R233939. WING G823. CORNELL WITCHCRAFT 239. KEYNES (BIBLIOTHECA) 2353.
(Item ID: WRCLIT56771) $2,750.00