The History of Magic by Eliphas Levi
Publication: 1922 William Rider & Son Second UK Edition
Among the cornerstone texts in Western esoteric Canon. The History of Magic is a wide-ranging study of magical traditions, extending into alchemy and the hermetic arts. Eliphas Levi, one of the pivotal figures of the 19th-century occult revival shaped the thought of later movements such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Theosophy, and modern ceremonial magic. This translation by A. E. Waite conveys both Lévi’s depth of learning and vivid imagination, and Waite himself praised it as “the most arresting, entertaining, and brilliant of all studies on the subject with which I am acquainted.”
Condition; Original blue cloth with gilt titles and illustrations to the spine and upper board. Top edge gilt. Deckled edges. Illustrated with a frontpiece portrait. of the author and black & white plates throughout. Only minor bumping to the upper corners of the book. The interior is clean with no markings. A superb Near Fine copy.