Item #69587 The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts. Including the Rites and Mysteries of Goetic Theurgy, Sorcery, and Infernal Necromancy. Black Magic, Arthur Edward WAITE, publisher L. W. de Laurence.
The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts. Including the Rites and Mysteries of Goetic Theurgy, Sorcery, and Infernal Necromancy.
The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts. Including the Rites and Mysteries of Goetic Theurgy, Sorcery, and Infernal Necromancy.
The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts. Including the Rites and Mysteries of Goetic Theurgy, Sorcery, and Infernal Necromancy.
The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts. Including the Rites and Mysteries of Goetic Theurgy, Sorcery, and Infernal Necromancy.

The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts. Including the Rites and Mysteries of Goetic Theurgy, Sorcery, and Infernal Necromancy.

Chicago, IL: The de Laurence Company, Inc., 1940. Second Edition Thus. Hardcover. Quarto (10 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches) xvi + 296 pp. Full black faux leather with dull gold titling to spine and solar design to upper board, b&w illustrations. An attractive, large format edition - the second major de Laurence edition. Originally published in England in 1898, a pirated edition of the book was first published under the imprint "Occult Publishing House" in the US circa 1910. The "Occult Publishing House" seems to have been an early endeavour by de Laurence, who shortly thereafter republished it under his own "de Laurence" imprint. In 1940 de Laurence republished this new edition, which differs is largely the same as the earlier one save for some changes to the design of the preliminaries (which looked pretty dated) etc. As the title suggests "The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts" is a study and collection of material from various grimoires, including "The Key of Solomon," "The Lesser Key of Solomon," "The Grimoire of Honorius," "The Fourth Book of Agrippa," "The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage," etc. etc. It was arguably the first major collection of grimoires to be published in the English language, and (in the form of the first edition) is known to have been one of the first books on the subject to have been studied by Aleister Crowley, whose reading of it was part of the chain of events that led to him joining the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. A few light marks to the front cover, the gilt on the spine is quite dull (it is dull to begin with), small erasure and previous owner's name on frontpastedown. Overall an unusually tight, clean VG+ copy. No dust jacket issued. A large book that will require some additional shipping and insurance in addition to the amount automatically listed. The exact amount extra will depend on the destination and the method used - we will calculate options and quote it to you once you've placed your order, or you can enquire beforehand. Item #69587

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