1969 The History and Practice of Magic by Paul Christian • Two Volumes in One

Description

A substantial two-volume-in-one edition of Paul Christian’s The History and Practice of Magic, published by Citadel Press in 1969 and edited and revised by the influential occultist and Druidic writer Ross Nichols.

 

Originally published in French in 1870 under the title Histoire de la magie, du monde surnaturel et de la fatalité à travers les temps et les peuples, the work was written by French author and historian Jean-Baptiste Pitois (1811–1877), who wrote under the name Paul Christian.

Pitois’s work is an ambitious survey of magic, the supernatural and esoteric traditions throughout history. Its subjects range across ancient mysteries, astrology, divination, Kabbalah, witchcraft, secret societies and the many magical traditions that have fascinated writers and scholars for centuries. Published during the nineteenth-century revival of interest in occultism, the original work became part of the literature that helped shape the study and popular understanding of Western esoteric traditions.

This 1969 English-language edition is particularly interesting in its own right. Newly translated from the French, it was edited and revised by Ross Nichols, with additional material contributed by modern authorities. Nichols was a writer, poet and historian of Druidism and Celtic traditions, and in 1964 founded the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. His involvement places this edition within the renewed interest in magic, Druidism, paganism and esoteric traditions that was developing during the mid-twentieth century.

The edition also contains supplementary contributions, notes and emendations from several other writers, making it more than simply a modern reprinting of Pitois’s nineteenth-century text. It represents an interesting meeting between nineteenth-century occult literature and the twentieth-century writers who were revisiting, interpreting and expanding these traditions.

The title page describes the work as being “In Two Volumes,” though both volumes are bound together here as a single substantial book of 621 pages.

This copy has bright red boards and remains structurally sound, with all pages secure and no seam splits. There is some marking to the front pastedown and endpaper, as shown in the photographs.

A fascinating addition to a collection of occult, magical and esoteric literature, particularly for those interested in the history and development of Western occult thought.

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