167J John Aubrey 1626-1697
Miscellanies, Viz. I. Day-Fatality. II. Local-Fatality. III. Ostenta. IV. Omens. V. Dreams. VI. Apparitions. VII. Voices. VIII. Impulses. IX. Knockings. X. Blows invisible. XI. Prophesies. XII. Marvels. XIII. Magick. XIV. Transportation in the Air. XV. Visions in a Beril, or glass. XVI. Converse with Angels and Spirits. XVII. Corps-candles in Wales. XVIII. Oracles. XIX. Exstasie. XX. Glances of {Love. Envy. XXI. Second-Sighted-Persons. XXII. The Discovery of Two Murders by an Apparition.
London: Printed for A. Bettesworth, and J. Battley in Pater-Noster-Row, J. Pemberton in Fleetstreet, and E. Curll in the Strand. 1721 $3,800
Octavo 7 3/4 X 41/4 inches 2],x,[6],236p. Second edition enlarged.
This is a Lovely copy ! This copy is bound in contemporary blind ruled calf, professionally and very neatly rebacked with original gilt embellished spine laid over, and original boards, corners 
sympathetically renewed, gilt titled spine label. Light overall rubbing and wear to boards, armorial bookplate and private library plate on front pastedown, endpapers browned and a bit foxed, a little scattered browning and light foxing, a few lightly creased corners, text pages fairly bright and unmarked. Overall a tight, clean copy.
sympathetically renewed, gilt titled spine label. Light overall rubbing and wear to boards, armorial bookplate and private library plate on front pastedown, endpapers browned and a bit foxed, a little scattered browning and light foxing, a few lightly creased corners, text pages fairly bright and unmarked. Overall a tight, clean copy. Aubrey had a particular fascination for the supernatural although best known for his biographical Brief Lives.
‘”In 1696 Aubrey issued the only book he ever printed himself, the ‘Miscellanies,’ a highly entertaining collection of ghost stories and other anecdotes of the supernatural” (DNB). A work of ‘Hermetic Philosophy’, and one of the broadest of the early English examinations of the subject. As the lengthy subtitle suggests, this work contains many esoteric account including, in the final chapter ‘The Discovery of Two Murders by an Apparition’. These two murders were tried on 16 September 1690 before ‘the Honorable Sir John Powel, Knight, one of their Majesties Justices, at the Assizes holden at York’: ‘One committed by William Barwick upon his Wife being with Child, near Cawood in Yorkshire’, and the other ‘by Edward Mangall, upon Elizabeth Johnson, alias Ringrose, and her Bastard Child’ ‘Introductory Title’ which appears on page one: ‘A Collection of Hermetick Philosophy.’ ‘Miscellanies’ is a broad-ranging study, with sections on auspicious and inauspicious dates, omens, communications with angels, and magick, as well as a study of ‘second sight’ (the ability to foresee future events through divine inspiration) that is reputed to be the first treatment of the subject to appear in print. The chapter on “Magick” includes a few short references to witches and witchcraft: notably “Vervain and dill, Hinders witches from their will”, and several stories recounting methods used to hinder witchcraft. The book was first published in 1696.
Leave a Reply