FIRST EDITION, iii-cxiv, 277, [1]pp., wood engraved frontispiece, some offsetting, occasional light spotting, bookplate of Jame McCosh of Dalry to front pastedown, covering Grey family armorial bookplate, ownership inscription to frontispiece verso, contemporary calf, boards bordered with a blind roll inside double gilt rules, rebacked, contemporary red morocco labels, 4to, Edinburgh, for Archibald Constable and Co., 1818.
This work accounts instances of witchcraft and the supernatural as well as other historical events between 1638 and 1684 in Britain.
The first publication of this manuscript compiled by Scottish field preacher, Robert Law (d.1686?). It was edited for publication by Scottish antiquary and artist,Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, who is believed to have published the work as an attack on Wodrow and the Presbyterians.
However, Sharpe had a keen interest in witchcraft, writing an informative and lengthy preface which provides much historical context to the work, and of witchcraft in Scotland until the eighteenth century.
He also includes a detailed biography of Robert Law.
A fascinating insight into the attitudes towards and the history of witchcraft in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries in Britain.
Provenance:
James McCosh of Dalry
Grey family
Marshall Carritt, with inscription “M.C. will not lend this book to anyone.”
