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 US Edition ]. Hardcover. Quarto (10 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches) xvi + 296 pp. Full black pebbled 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 in 1940 republished the title under his own "de Laurence" imprint. Typically for de Laurence, the book went through a number of different printings, but the differentiating details were not noted. While the different bindings were sometimes obvious, internally the later printings were largely the same as the 1910 printing with the exception that one of the earlier printings omitted the frontispiece, possibly for reasons of (wartime?) economy (the frontispiece was typically printed on a separate sheet of coated paper and tipped or bound in). This is one of the printings that was issued without the frontispiece, and is thus an early, possibly first printing of this second edition. 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. Minimal shelf-wear, the gilt on the spine is a bit dulled - as common, endpapers unevenly browned, owner name in pen on front pastedown - still overall a bright, tight and unmarked VG+ copy. No dust jacket issued. A large book that may require some additional shipping in addition to the amount automatically listed, the exact amount dependent upon the destination. Item #74979
Price: $450.00