Owned by the Haunted. Glanvill (Joseph, FRS), More (Heny) &a...

Hammer

£3,200

Owned by the Haunted. Glanvill (Joseph, FRS), More (Heny) & Horneck (Anthony), Saducismus Triumphatus: or, Full and Plain Evidence Concerning Witches and Apparitions [...], annotated by a contemporary owner with an apparently unpublished and unrecorded cleric's account of his own supernatural visitation and his annotations, association copy, seven parts, second edition, s.l. [London]: Printed by Tho. Newcomb, for S. Lownds, 1682, frontispiece and additional title-page engraved by William Faithorne, black-ruled letterpress title, divisional titles, complete, collating: [xviii], 52; [xii], 86; [87-88], 89-162; [vi], 78, [2] (blank); [xii], 273, [1] (blank); [ii], 3-67, [1]; [ii], 5-45, [1] (blank); [xvi], 24, [1]pp (advert), 'The dimensions of the two Stones mentioned in these papers '  illustration included in the register, some in-text illustrations and diagrams, [6]ff original blanks annotated by the original owner, the Rev. John Parry (1639-1714), including the 1673/4 account of his having been haunted while '[...] being at Sr Charles Woolelys (sic; Sir Charles Wolseley, 2nd Baronet) at Woolsly Hall (sic; Wolseley) in the County of Stafford [being] lodged in a little chamber adjoining to the great parlour [...]', while staying at the country house with his patron William Somerville (1675-1742), the Augustan poet; anecdotes of visitations in classical antiquity; glosses and infrequent comments on the publication; along with a [2]ff typed transcript of the account and [1]ff about Parry loosely-inserted, a later [3]ff of Alan Gauld's pencilled glosses and references to the whole work, engraved title loosening but firmly attached, toned, some gatherings affected by graduating stains, never affecting legibility or sense of text, late 19th c fine binding of full citron morocco gilt by Fleming of Glasgow, signed, some handling wear and dulling, all edges gilt, gilt turn-ins and rolled dentelle, marbled endpapers, 8vo, [Wing G823] 

Provenance: 1) Rev. John Parry (1639-1714), rector of Aston Somerville, then Gloucestershire, now Worcestershire; his manuscript affidavited account, notes, glosses and criticisms of the text to original blanks verso. 2) William Bell Scott (1811-1890), Scottish artist associated with the  Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; his canted occult bookplate, etched by himself, to pastedown. 3) Dr. Alan Gauld (1932-2024), parapsychologist and historian of psychical research, formerly of the University of Nottingham; his ex libris label, ownership inscription and pencilled notes.

This posthumous collection strongly influenced Cotton Mather in his Discourse on Witchcraft (1689) and the witch trials held in 1692–3 in Salem, Massachusetts. Mather's Wonders of the Invisible World (1693) is largely modelled after this book and its reports, particularly the material relating to the Mora witch trial of 1669.