GODWIN, William.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Lives of the Necromancers: First edition of this biographical study of magical practitioners from biblical and classical sources up to the eighteenth century, such as Zoroaster, Virgil, Merlin, and Joan of Arc. This copy, although unmarked as such, is from the library of Trevor Dawson (1934-2017), a historian of magic and a member of the Magic Circle and The International Brotherhood of Magicians for over forty years.Godwin often incorporated Gothic tropes into his writing - notably in his two novels, Caleb Williams (1794) and St. Leon (1799) - but was sceptical of the existence of the supernatural in reality. He here applies his characteristic rationalism to consider the psychology of belief in spectacular occurrences and the motives of so-called magicians throughout the centuries: "The main purpose of this book is to exhibit a fair delineation of the credulity of the human mind" (p. v).

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