World Food Books

The Alchemical Feminine: Women, Gender and Sexuality in Alchemical Images
by M. E. Warlick

2026, English
Hardcover, 292 pages, 30.5 x 22.9 cm
Published by Fulgur Press / UK

$165.00 - In stock -

The images of women in this pioneering volume evolved from alchemical philosophy, in which gendered and sexualised concepts are used to describe physical matter and laboratory processes. When alchemical imagery arose in the late Middle Ages, images of women developed in ways that reflected wider social pressures. This title examines the transformations of alchemical images of women in the early modern period and the increasing masculinisation of earlier feminine imagery. When alchemy returned to the Latin West, metals were thought to be composed of hot, dry, fixed Philosophic Sulphur and cool, moist, volatile Philosophic Mercury. In the laboratory, these lovers fused in a “Chemical Wedding” that produced their child, the “Philosophers’ Stone,” a mysterious catalyst enabling the transformation of base metals into silver and gold. As alchemical imagery developed, women appeared as ancient philosophers, religious figures, royal queens, sexual partners, cosmological personifications, deities, allegorical symbols of Nature and the wives of fools. Herbal alchemy also had ancient roots and it is in this realm that women as alchemical practitioners can be found. Using abundant illustrations, this book examines the alchemical feminine and the thematic diversity of alchemical images of women.

M. E. Warlick, Ph.D., Professor of European Modern Art at the University of Denver, teaches classes on 18th through 20th century European art. She has received DU’s Distinguished Professor Award (1991), and served as University Professor of the Arts and Humanities (1997-2000). Her books include: Max Ernst and Alchemy (University of Texas Press, 2001) and The Philosopher’s Stones (1997), rev. ed. The Alchemy Stones (2002). She has published on surrealist art and the occult, and on alchemical imagery from antiquity through the mid-17th century, analysed through a feminist lens, with articles in the Art Journal, Art Bulletin, Glasgow Emblem Studies, Culture and Cosmos, and in several anthologies published by the Association for the Study of Esotericism. Her essay on “Surrealism and Alchemy,” appeared in the Art and Alchemy exhibition catalogue (Düsseldorf: Museum Kunstpalast, 2014). Her most recent book is entitled The Alchemical Feminine: Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Alchemical Imagery (Fulgur Press, 2025).

File under: M. E. Warlick Fulgur Press / UK Occult / Esoterica Art Theory / Essay Gender Studies / Sexuality Philosophy Ancient / Medieval / Gothic

Graveyards: A History of Living with the Dead
by Roger Luckhurst

2026, English
Hardcover, 256 pages, 26 x 18 cm
Published by Princeton University Press / New York

$69.00 - In stock -

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From the author of Gothic, a marvelously illustrated cultural history of graves and graveyards, from the earliest known burial sites to today’s green burials.

Why, how, and where do we inter our dead? How have people throughout history responded to the problem of laying their dead to rest? Roger Luckhurst sets out in search of answers in this arresting book. Taking readers on an unforgettable tour of the rich and unusual visual culture of the grave, he visits locales such as the pyramids of Giza, the catacombs and columbaria of Rome, and the cenotaphs erected to the world’s war dead. Along the way, he examines the diverse role of graveyards in literature, art, film, and television.

In engaging chapters that look at all aspects of the treatment of the dead, Luckhurst covers topics ranging from early burials and the emergence of necropolises and catacombs to grave robbing, garden cemeteries, the perilous overcrowding of the urban dead, and the emergence of modern funerary culture. Exploring the cultural afterlives of burial and memorial sites in the popular imagination, he shows how graves have served as guides to the underworld, poignant dedications to those we have lost, as reminders of our own mortality, and settings in gothic horror.

Blending lively storytelling with a wealth of stunning illustrations, Graveyards is a lyrical, frequently unexpected account of the grave as a signpost to the afterlife, a site of remembrance and self-reflection, and an object of enduring fascination.

File under: Roger Luckhurst Princeton University Press / New York Ancient / Medieval / Gothic Theory / Essay Anthropology Sociology / Politics Art Occult / Esoterica Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction

Hidden Symbolism Of Alchemy And The Occult Arts
By Herbert Silberer

1971, English
Softcover, 452 pages, 21.4 x 13.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Dover / New York

$45.00 - Out of stock

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First English 1971 edition of Herbert Silberer's examinations of alchemy and the occult, and his attempts to correlate the two crafts to the pursuit of psychoanalysis. First published in 1917, this text represents the extensive investigations Herbert Silberer undertook in order to map occurrences in the occult with the ascendant psychoanalytic disciplines present in the Vienna School of which he was part. This text is marked by its depth of research, with sources such as Hermes Trismegistus, Flamel, Lacinius, Michael Meier, Paracelsus, and Boehme quoted and drawn upon in service of Silberer's thesis. The support of alchemy as a spiritual movement, on the same level as the yoga traditions of the Indian subcontinent, is also notable.

Very Good copy.

File under: Herbert Silberer Dover / New York Psychoanalysis Out-of-print / Rare Theory / Essay Occult / Esoterica Ancient / Medieval / Gothic Art

Renaissance Man
by Agnes Heller

1984, English
Softcover, 482 pages, 20 x 13.5 cm
Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Schocken Books / New York

$25.00 - Out of stock

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Considering such witnesses of the time as Shakespeare, Dante, Petrarch, Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Montaigne, More and Bacon, Agnes Heller looks at both the concept and the image of a Renaissance man. The concept was generalised and accepted by all; its characteristic features were man as a dynamic being, creating and re-creating himself throughout his life. The images of man, however, were very different, having been formed through the ideas and imagination of artists, politicians, philosophers, scientists and theologians and viewed from the different aspects of work, love, fate, death, friendship, devotion and the concepts of space and time. Renaissance Man thus stood as both as a leading protagonist of his time, one who led and formulated the substantial attitudes of his time, and as one who stood as a witness on the sidelines of the discussion. This book, first published in English in 1978, is based on the diverse but equally important sources of autobiographies, works of art and literature, and the writings of philosophers. Although she uses Florence as a starting point, Agnes Heller points out that the Renaissance was a social and cultural phenomenon common to all of Western Europe; her Renaissance Man is thus a figure to be found throughout Europe.

Ágnes Heller was a Hungarian philosopher and lecturer. She was a core member of the Budapest School philosophical forum in the 1960s and later taught political theory for 25 years at the New School for Social Research in New York City. She lived, wrote and lectured in Budapest.

Good copy.

File under: Agnes Heller Schocken Books / New York Philosophy Theory / Essay Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language Sociology / Politics Out-of-print / Rare Renaissance / Neoclassicism / Romanticism Ancient / Medieval / Gothic

Extraterritorial
by George Steiner

1972, English
Softcover, 220 pages, 20 x 12.5 cm
Out of print title / used / good
Published by Peregrine Books / UK

$18.00 - In stock -

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1972 Penguin (Peregrine) edition of Extraterritorial by George Steiner.

During the past thirty years linguistics, the scientific study of language, has assumed a central place in philosophy, psychology, anthropology and the social sciences.

In this collection of essays (first published in the New Yorker) George Steiner asks if linguistics has altered in any way our understanding and experience of literature. Has, for instance, our response to literature been influenced by new theories of grammar? And does the personal extraterritoriality of certain writers - Beckett, Borges, Nabokov - and their movements between different languages and cultures, represent a profound change in the relationship of the writer to his native speech?

The incorporation of the speculative forms of science into educated literacy and into the normal life of the imagination will, in George Steiner's view, revitalize our lives and the beliefs we cherish about our culture.

Born in Paris in 1929, George Steiner is now Extraordinary Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge. He commutes often to the United States, where he has been Albert Schweitzer Visiting Professor in the Humanities at New York University, and where he has taught also at Stanford, Princeton, Harvard and Yale. After taking degrees at the University of Chicago and Harvard, where he won the Bell Prize in American Literature. Mr Steiner was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. He served on the editorial staff of the Economist in London from 1952 to 1956. At that time he became a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. There he wrote Tolstoy or Dostoeusky and began The Death of Tragedy. These were followed by a volume of three novellas, Anno Domini, and Language and Silence. He returned to England in 1961. His many honours include an O. Henry Short Story award, Fulbright and Guggenheim Fellowships, and the first award of the Morton Zabel Prize by the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1970. He is married, with two children. He is a present engaged on a full-scale study of the poetics and linguistics of multi-lingualism and of translation.

Good copy, general light edge wear / tanning to book block.

File under: George Steiner Jorge-Luis Borges Vladimir Nabokov Fyodor Dostoevsky Peregrine Books / UK Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language Theory / Essay Out-of-print / Rare Psychoanalysis Ancient / Medieval / Gothic

The Great God Pan: The Survival of an Image
by John Boardman

1998, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 48 pages, 23 x 16.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by Thames and Hudson / London

$15.00 - In stock -

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Among the gods of classical antiquity Pan - that distinctive figure combining the physical characteristics of man and goat - is one of the few to have retained a special place in the imaginations of writers and artists, even into modern times. In this, the twenty-ninth Walter Neurath Memorial Lecture, Sir John Boardman describes how the concept of Pan - originally a rustic deity associated with herdsmen in southern Greece - and his familiar pipes developed and was adapted in later times. Whether viewed as a personification of country ways, equated with the excesses of Bacchic revels or treated as a demon figure, the presence of Pan was felt in the literature and art of antiquity, the medieval period and notably in Renaissance and later paintings. More recently, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, he was adopted by many Romantic artists and writers and has also served as a medium for topical caricatures. Although the ideals which Pan represented in ancient Greece and Rome may have passed into history, the traditional image associated with his name remains as vivid as ever in the minds of modern man.

Sir John Boardman was born in 1927, and educated at Chigwell School and Magdalene College, Cambridge. He spent several years in Greece, three of them as Assistant Director of the British School of Archaeology at Athens, and he has excavated in Smyrna, Crete, Chios and Libya. For four years he was an Assistant Keeper in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and he subsequently became Reader in Classical Archaeology and Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. He is now Lincoln Professor Emeritus of Classical Archaeology and Art in Oxford, and a Fellow of the British Academy, from whom he received the Kenyon Medal in 1995. He was awarded the Onassis Prize for Humanities in 2009. Professor Boardman has written widely on the art and archaeology of Ancient Greece.

Fine copy.

File under: John Boardman Thames and Hudson / London Theory / Essay Anthropology Ancient / Medieval / Gothic Out-of-print / Rare Art

Witches' Sabbath
Edited by Masaaki Aoyama

1985, Japanese
Softcover, 290 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by Sanwa / Tokyo

$450.00 - Out of stock

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"People often talk about humanity and humanism, but what makes humans decisively different from animals is that they betray, deceive, and destroy others. Humanity means being cruel."—Masaaki Aoyama

Super rare, first and only issue of cult magazine of erotic obscenity, Witches' Sabbath ("Super Pervert, End of the Century, Abuse History"), published in 1985 by Sanwa Publications as a special edition of SM Mania and edited by Masaaki Aoyama (1960-2001), a legendary cult writer, editor and pioneer in the genre of "Kichiku" (cruel) publishing who had a major influence on Japanese subculture in the 1980s and 1990s.

In 1995, after a prolific career in underground publishing, Aoyama edited the first issue of the "brutal" subculture magazine "Dangerous No. 1," which sparked a huge craze for bad taste culture in Japan, with the opening introduction declaring "There are no taboos when it comes to fantasies!". Ten years earlier, at 25 years old, he edited Witches' Sabbath, a call to "Destroy All Orders", a magazine devoted to "Decadence, Ultra-Abnormality, and Maltreatment"; Aoyama's unique, devilish manifestation of a particular convergence of subcultural 1980s Tokyo — punk and industrial music, splatter horror films, underground manga, SM publishing, and occultism. "The Worst Truth of the 20th Century".

Aoyama was deeply attracted to the culture of monsters, the world of the abnormal, the cruel and dark impulses of human-kind. His publishing ventures centred around his fascination with destructive and socially maladjusted people, perversions, social taboos, "freaks" and subjects turned against public order and morality. Profusely illustrated throughout with colour photo galleries, Aoyama, with contributors including Merzbow's Masami Akita, horror manga artists Suehiro Maruo and Hideshi (Guinea Pig) Hino, manga critic and activist Shinichiro Kurimoto, Hisao Nakano, Mongoose Nagayama, Dan Takasugi, Ken Hirukogami, and others, present features on all manner of heterodox culture, everything from an illustrated guide to corpse photography, splatter horror movies, scatology, how-to seppuku/harakiri (Japanese ritualistic suicide by disembowelment), horror manga (new artworks by Maruo, Hino, comic by Jimmie Morita, and others), infant mania, drugs, necrophilia, Industrial Records (Throbbing Gristle, Monte Cazazza, SPK, etc,), Zeitlich Vergelter, Ron Geesin, sadistic crime history, deformities, Georges Bataille, devil pregnancy kinbaku, sorcery, bestiality, witch hunting, SM readers confessions, the latest in fetish publishing, D-Cup extravaganza (big breast video and magazine publishing), and much more. A special Nazi issue was planned for the next issue, but the magazine was discontinued after this first issue.

An important publication in the history of Japan's "Kichiku" (cruel) publishing. Cover artwork by Ran Akiyoshi.
Not for the faint of heart. Strictly mature audiences only.

From the Editor's notes: "[...] That's because my original path was escapist fairy tales, and whether it was manga, photography, or bookmaking, what I wanted to depict was the world of children. There's no doubt that the purest things and madness are side by side... What is abnormal and what is normal? In this day and age when everything man has created is being torn down and all boundaries are being removed, humans are being led astray by the enormous concepts they have created. Is Witches' Sabbath just a pornographic book? Is Masaaki Aoyama just crazy? It has only just begun."

Masaaki Aoyama (1960-2001) was pioneer of the Japanese underground publishing scene. When he was in the third grade of elementary school, his father bought him a copy of Hiroshi Minamiyama's book "Supernatural Mysteries," which sparked his interest in the supernatural and the occult. Although he never studied, he displayed his prodigy qualities from an early age whilst simultaneously becoming addicted to masturbation. His intense quest for knowledge and perversion continued into his adult life. A self-proclaimed hedonist, Aoyama was hailed as a rare genius editor that had a profound, almost traumatic impact on people. Aoyama openly discussed and pursued a wide range of specialised topics, from drugs, lolicon, scat, and freaks to cult movies, progressive rock, punk, techno, the occult, heretical thought, and the spiritual world. He worked prolifically, editing and writing articles for mini-comics, books and magazines such as Hentai, Hey! Buddy, Billy, Witches' Sabbath, Philiac, Eccentric, amongst a seemingly endless list of fringe "pervert" publications that proliferated after the emergence of vending machine books in the 1970s. In 1992, Aoyama wrote Japan's first practical drug manual, "Dangerous Drugs," a "bible for junkies" which sold over 100,000 copies. In 1995, he edited the first issue of the "brutal" subculture magazine "Dangerous No. 1," which quoted the words of cult guru Hassan I-Sabah: "There is no truth. Everything is permitted." The magazine, which was packed with an exhaustive range of deviant, perverted, and bad taste content, became a huge hit, selling over 250,000 copies in total, sparking a craze for "Kichiku" (cruel) publishing in Japan in the late 19th century.

"No taboos in delusions"—Dangerous No. 1 introduction.

The trend of consuming things that are generally viewed as objects of loathing or pity from a mondo perspective was accelerated all over the world during the nihilist 1990's, but it was particularly popularised in Japan. From V-Zone video culture to comic books like Garo and the works of Kei (Takashi) Nemoto, Suehiro Maruo and Hideshi Hino, to subculture magazines that stimulated spectacle-based curiosity, crime and voyeurism, such as GON!, BUBKA, Sekimatsu Club, TOO NEGATIVE, End of the Century, Weekly Murder Casebook, Bessatsu Takarajima. Around the same time, Aoyama was diagnosed with multifocal posterior pigment epitheliopathy (MPPE), an extremely rare eye disease affecting around 50 people nationwide in Japan, which later became one of the factors that led him to become interested in spiritual matters. Aoyama, the mastermind behind this new genre of "Kichiku" (cruel), bad taste publishing, became disillusioned with the vulgar taste that was being mass-produced as a result of the boom. Aoyama felt the genre lost its substance as a counterculture or literary movement and had been absorbed into popular culture, the historical lineage of erotic underground publishing had become dissolved with the boom of extreme content on the internet. Without moralising, he had stared directly into the abyss. The dark truths he sought fed his own deviancy and addictions. Aoyama became depressed and reclusive. In 1997, Sakakibara Seito, an avid reader of Danger No. 1, committed the Kobe child murders. This led to bookstores removing all bad taste subculture books from their shelves. In 1999, "The Complete Works of Aoyama Masaaki” was published, marking the end of "Kichiku" publishing. Aoyama sought the light and pursued a new theory of happiness related to the spiritual world based on psychoneuroimmunology, molecular biology, and Buddhist resignation. In an interview with the magazine BURST, he declared, "the brutal genre is no longer fresh. From now on, I'll go for the soothing genre." He hanged himself at his home in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture on June 17, 2001, at the age of 40.

Near Fine collector's copy!

File under: Masami Akita (Merzbow) Suehiro Maruo Hideshi Hino Ran Akiyoshi Industrial Records Throbbing Gristle Monte Cazazza SPK Zeitlich Vergelter Masami Akita (Merzbow) Shinichiro Kurimoto Masaaki Aoyama Georges Bataille Sanwa / Tokyo Eros Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Out-of-print / Rare Periodicals Counterculture Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Japanese Photography Fetishism / BDSM Occult / Esoterica Ancient / Medieval / Gothic Crime / Violence Drugs / Psychedelia Gender Studies / Sexuality LGBTQ+ Transgressive / Visceral / Abject

Chinese Erotism
by Marc de Smedt

1981, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 96 pages, 28.5 x 22.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Liber / Fribourg Crescent Books / New York

$35.00 - In stock -

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Hardcover volume published in 1981, profusely illustrated throughout. Text by Marc de Smedt exploring the customs and traditions of human sexuality in Eastern Asian art.

The people of ancient China were fond of making love. They saw it as a way of harmonizing the energies of heaven and earth, and thus of continuing nature's cycle of creation. So love became an art, the art of living, the art of untying the body's knots. It was also an integral part of religion. Thus to the great indignation of their enemies, the Taoists combined sexual practices with their techniques of meditation. [...]

VG—VG dust jacket.

File under: Marc de Smedt Liber / Fribourg Crescent Books / New York Eros Ancient / Medieval / Gothic Theory / Essay Out-of-print / Rare Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Art Painting Gender Studies / Sexuality Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic

Japanese Erotism
by Bernard Soulié

1981, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 96 pages, 28.5 x 22.5 cm
Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Liber / Fribourg

$30.00 - In stock -

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Hardcover volume published in 1981, profusely illustrated throughout. Text by Bernard Soulié and translated by Evelyn Roissiter. 1983 print from Liber, Fribourg. English text.

"As radio cars and helicopters keep the crowd in order, an imposing procession of women follows a group of laughing priests, while expressionless police officers hold the onlookers back. This scene would be fairly commonplace were it not for the nature of the object in honor of which the procession is being held: the phallus. Finely sculpted specimens made of carefully polished wood are to be found in dozens of sanctuaries dedicated to the cult of Shinto, the ancient religion which preceded Buddhism and which still pervades Japan today.

Needless to say, in such a country there is no taboo on sexuality or sexual images. Sex has always been very much taken for granted. The place it occupies in literature and the arts is therefore not surprising. Graphic treatment of the subject in Japan has been abundant, of high quality and distinctly original, even when compared to the work of the Chinese masters. Japanese erotic art blends refinement of line with a brutally realistic depiction of the sexual act. The attendant commentary, often expressed by the protagonists themselves, gives an unabashed account of intimate anatomical and physiological details, while the sexual organs, particularly that of the male, are shown as being vastly larger than life during and just before intercourse. In many instances, however, the rest of the protagonists' bodies is clothed, and sumptuously so. Their finery and hairstyle, as well as the decor of the scene, provide clues as to their social background. Certain pictures include accessories designed to enhance pleasure, whether solitary or shared, such as the harigata (artificial penis) or the higo-miki (ring hastening erection). [...]

VG—VG dust jacket.

File under: Bernard Soulié Liber / Fribourg Eros Art Out-of-print / Rare Theory / Essay Ancient / Medieval / Gothic Gender Studies / Sexuality Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic

In the Name of Love: Women, Masochism and the Gothic
by Michelle A. Masse

1992, English
Softcover, 302 pages, 24 x 16.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by Cornell University Press / New York

$100.00 - Out of stock

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First 1992 edition.

"This brilliant and substantial study will be required reading for critics of Gothic literature and for feminist theorists. Unlike other psychoanalytic readers who localize the 'horror' in Gothic fiction by interpreting it as an effect of repressed anxiety about motherhood or genital sexuality, Massé regards the horror as systemic and actual, and for this reason her study is far more radical, comprehensive, and satisfying. In the Name of Love is challenging and engaging reading that opens out onto new critical territory all the way through." -Claudia L. Johnson, Marquette University

"Massé handles an important topic in a thorough, clear, and interesting fashion. I especially liked the book's combination of theoretical analysis and original readings of texts. In the Name of Love will make a significant contribution in all the areas it treats-feminism, psychoanalysis, and literature."-Shirley Nelson Garner, Department of English, University of Minnesota

The Gothic woman is taught to believe that self-abnegation will be rewarded by love; her experience clearly proves otherwise. Although Gothic fiction has characteristically been written by and for women, this sophisticated and venturesome book is one of the first to examine the contradictions of the Gothic pact in the light of contemporary feminist and psychoanalytic theory. Michelle A. Massé looks at selected British and American novels from the eighteenth century to the present, focusing on the theme of masochism as an element of women's identity. Approaching the Gothic novel by way of psychoanalysis, she also identifies a Gothic plot within psychoanalytic theory itself.

In fiction that ranges from Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper, and Daphne de Maurier's Rebecca to Gloria Naylor's Linden Hills, Margaret Atwood's Lady Oracle, and Pauline Réage's Story of O, Massé explores the narrative of women being trained to embrace their own subordination. She begins by asserting that the stylistic and structural repetitions of the Gothic constitute both symptoms of this trauma and attempts to work it through. Massé delineates the pattern of women's ego formation in the courtship plot and discusses what she calls "marital Gothic." She then addresses the complicated issues raised by the classic beating fantasy in which the young girl must choose to accept the role of victim, aggressor, or spectator. In her conclusion, she con- siders modes of resistance to this triangular drama and to the related fantasy of romance.

In the Name of Love will be essential reading for scholars and students in the fields of gender studies, critical, psycho-analytic, and novel theory, as well as Victorian and contemporary fiction.

MICHELLE A. MASSÉ is Associate Professor of English at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. A graduate of Anna Maria College, she received her Ph.D. degree from Brown University.

Cover illustration: King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid, by Edward Burne-Jones. Tate Gallery, London/Art Resource, New York.

Good copy, light spine tanning/creasing, crease to front cover corner, light wear.

File under: Edward Burne-Jones Michelle A. Masse Charlotte Brontë Charlotte Perkins Gilman Pauline Réage Margaret Atwood Gloria Naylor Daphne de Maurier Cornell University Press / New York Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language Eros Out-of-print / Rare Theory / Essay Fiction / Poetry Ancient / Medieval / Gothic Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle

Yaso No. 5
Special Feature : Corpse

1982/1992, Japanese
Softcover, 192 pages, 21 x 14.5 cm
Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Atelier Peyotl / Tokyo

$60.00 - Out of stock

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"Corpse" Special Feature Issue of cult Japanese underground magazine Yaso, first published in 1982, then re-printed in 1992, edited by Yuichi Konno and Atelier Peyotl (publishers of Night Vision/Yaso/Peyotl/Wave/Silvester Club...). Heavily illustrated with texts in Japanese that look at the theme of death and the dead in the arts, literature, occultism, ancient sciences, philosophy, mythology, poetry, film, crime, and much more. Features John Duncan, Tetsumi Kudo, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Masahisa Fukase, Franz Kafka, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Guillaume Apollinaire, Joe Potts (LAFMS), Takashi Ishii, Rudolf II — Holy Roman Emperor, Akinari Ueda, Marcel Duchamp, Chris Burden, Paul Celan, Alain Resnais, Gilyak Amagasaki, Shusaku Arakawa, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Shuji Terayama, Andy Warhol, Charles Manson, Brian Wilson, Kyoko Endoh, Princess Yongtai, Salvador Dalí, Ono no Komachi, Kiyoshi Kasai, Caravaggio, Throbbing Gristle, Takizawa Bakin, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, Manson Family, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Wu Zetian, Genesis P-Orridge, Yusuke Nakahara, Ranpo Lagrange, Mitsusada Fukasaku, Nakai Hideo, Richard Wagner, and many more.

Very Good copy.

File under: Chris Burden Alain Resnais Gilyak Amagasaki Shusaku Arakawa Andy Warhol Brian Wilson Kyoko Endoh John Duncan Tetsumi Kudo Cosey Fanni Tutti Joe Potts (LAFMS) Takashi Ishii Salvador Dali Caravaggio Throbbing Gristle Marcel Duchamp Masahisa Fukase Shuji Terayama Franz Kafka Guillaume Apollinaire Ono no Komachi Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Akinari Ueda Kiyoshi Kasai Takizawa Bakin Paul Celan Yusuke Nakahara Fyodor Dostoevsky Ranpo Lagrange Mitsusada Fukasaku Nakai Hideo Atelier Peyotl / Tokyo Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Out-of-print / Rare Periodicals Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Crime / Violence Film / Video Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language Occult / Esoterica Philosophy Sound / Music Performance / Dance / Theater Fiction / Poetry Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Ancient / Medieval / Gothic Renaissance / Neoclassicism / Romanticism Art Counterculture Eros Fetishism / BDSM Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Surrealism Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle Theory / Essay

Magic Art
by André Breton

2025, English
Hardcover, 320 pages, 30 x 24 cm
Published by Fulgur Press / UK

$165.00 - In stock -

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Breton's late treatise on magic and art appears for the first time in English, complete with citations, commentaries and a bibliography.

What is “Magic Art”? In 1953, André Breton, founder of the Surrealist movement, was invited by a prestigious French publisher to explore answers to this question. His resulting analysis is wide-ranging and evocative. Beginning with a literary review of magic and art, Breton draws upon Novalis and Baudelaire before considering the prehistoric rock art of Spain and France, the native art of the Pacific Northwest, the magical grimoires and alchemical symbolism of the Middle Ages, and the work of Hieronymus Bosch, Antoine Caron, Paolo Uccello, Gustav Moreau, Paul Gauguin and the Surrealists. Through these and other diverse sources, Breton traces a mystery that lies at the heart of our timeless fascination with otherness and seeks to place Surrealism as a successor to a magical sensibility that began with art itself.

First published in 1957 as L’Art magique, this important text is offered here as an English translation for the first time. Working from manuscript notes for the original project, this edition presents the iconographic content as Breton intended, together with more than 300 new citations and a comprehensive bibliography that emphasizes sources found in Breton’s own library.

André Breton (1896–1966) was one of the founders and most controversial exponents of Surrealism, defining the movement in his first Surrealist Manifesto as “pure psychic automatism.” Fleeing from Europe during World War II, Breton traveled throughout North America staging Surrealist exhibitions and lending his voice to several political movements.

With contributions by Gérard Legrand, Robert Shehu-Ansell, Merlin Cox, Krzysztof Fijalkowski, Dawn Ades, Anne Egger, Kristoffer Noheden.

File under: André Breton Gerard Legrand Robert Shehu-Ansell Merlin Cox Krzysztof Fijalkowski Dawn Ades Anne Egger Kristoffer Noheden Fulgur Press / UK Occult / Esoterica Art Painting Renaissance / Neoclassicism / Romanticism Surrealism Dada Drawing Sculpture / Installation Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language Theory / Essay Ancient / Medieval / Gothic

The Roots of Witchcraft
by Michael Harrison

1975, English
Softcover, 288 pages, 18 x 11 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Tandem / London

$65.00 - Out of stock

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First 1975 paperback edition.

"This book is unique in the literature of witchcraft. Many volumes record the tortures, confessions and executions of the witch trials; few examine the origin and beliefs of this remarkable subterranean cult which has survived almost unchanged through the centuries.

Michael Harrison, unrivalled in the field of historical detection, gives convincing answers to questions which other writers on witchcraft have persistently dodged—What part did Man's earliest organised religion, the Old Fertility Cult, play in the development of witchcraft? Where did the evil side of the Fertility Cult- Diabolism - evolve, and how and when did it enter Europe?

But the most important revelation in this book is the author's achievement in translating the ancient 'language of the covens', the 'gibberish' of the witch-trial records, the lost language whose identification holds the key to the very Roots of Witchcraft.

"A wide-ranging work which has achieved a remarkable breakthrough".—Yorkshire Evening Press

"...profound chronology of the cult from pre-history, through Druidism, to Salem and the present day".—Evening News

VG copy with light general wear.

File under: Michael Harrison Tandem / London Occult / Esoterica Out-of-print / Rare Theory / Essay Crime / Violence Ancient / Medieval / Gothic

The World of Fairies: Universally Loved Through The Ages
by Kimie Imura

1998, Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket), 204 pages, 22 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Isshusha / Japan

$45.00 - Out of stock

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Catalogue and historical study by renowned Japanese fairy scholar Kimie Imura, published in Japan to accompany a travelling Japanese exhibition in 1998. Profusely illustrated throughout in full-colour, the book traces the history of the fairy in folk-lore and the arts, from Celtic mythology and Arthurian legend, to the danger of their depiction being rejected by Christianity as the descendants of pagan gods, through the Elizabethan era in the 16th century, where they regained their place in the world of literature and theatre, through the adoration of the 19th century Victorian period and future generations of artists in Japan all weaving the fairy legend into works of painting, music, ballet, literature, book illustration, costume, applied arts, sculpture, and much more. Features the work of George Cruickshank, Honor Charlotte Appleton, Arthur Rackham, Amelia Murray, Edmund Dulac, Joseph Payton, John Simmons, Joseph Zevan, The Doyle brothers, C. Wilhelm, Shigeru Mizuki, Yoshitaka Amano, Itsuko Azuma, Suzuko Makino, Akira Uno, Yukio Satsukime, Yuki Yuuki, Akiko Iwakiri, and many more.

Very Good—Near Fine copy in VG dust jacket with a few ballpoint marks to lower back.

File under: George Cruickshank Honor Charlotte Appleton Arthur Rackham Amelia Murray Edmund Dulac Joseph Payton John Simmons Joseph Zevan The Doyle brothers C. Wilhelm Shigeru Mizuki Yoshitaka Amano Itsuko Azuma Suzuko Makino Akira Uno Yukio Satsukime Yuki Yuuki Akiko Iwakiri Kimie Imura Isshusha / Japan Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Ancient / Medieval / Gothic Renaissance / Neoclassicism / Romanticism Art Painting Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Ceramics / Glass Performance / Dance / Theater Sound / Music Drawing Occult / Esoterica

Undercover Surrealism: Georges Bataille and DOCUMENTS
by Dawn Ades and Simon Baker

2006, English
Softcover, 272 pages, 27.1 x 21.4 cm
Published by Hayward Gallery Publishing / London

$75.00 - In stock -

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An exploration of the unsettling collisions of art and culture in Georges Bataille's revolutionary journal and a new consideration of twentieth-century masterpieces by Picasso, Miro, Dali, and others against the canvas of their renegade times.

In the Paris art world of the 1920s, Georges Bataille and his journal DOCUMENTS represented a dissident branch of surrealism. Bataille—poet, philosopher, writer, and self-styled "enemy within" surrealism—used DOCUMENTS to put art into violent confrontation with popular culture, ethnography, film, and archaeology. Undercover Surrealism, taking the visual richness of DOCUMENTS as its starting point, recovers the explosive and vital intellectual context of works by Picasso, Miro, Dali, Giacometti, and others in 1920s Paris.

Profusely illustrated (featuring 180 colour images) and filled with valuable English translations of original French texts from DOCUMENTS accompanied by essays and shorter descriptive texts, Undercover Surrealism recreates and recontextualizes Bataille's still unsettling approach to culture. Putting Picasso's Three Dancers back into its original context of sex, sacrifice, and violence, for example, then juxtaposing it with images of gang wars, tribal masks, voodoo ritual, Hollywood musicals, and jazz, makes the urgency and excitement of Bataille's radical ideas startlingly vivid to a twenty-first-century reader.

File under: André Masson Alberto Giacometti Salvador Dali Salvador Dalí Pablo Picasso Joan Miró Dawn Ades Georges Bataille Michel Leiris Simon Baker Hayward Gallery Publishing / London Surrealism Painting Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Theory / Essay Philosophy Art Sculpture / Installation Periodicals Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language Ancient / Medieval / Gothic Dada Occult / Esoterica Photography Socialism / Communism / Capitalism Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle Film / Video Eros

Violence and the Sacred
by René Girard

1979 / 1994, English
Softcover, 352 pages, 22.86 x 15.24 cm
Published by John Hopkins University Press / Baltimore

$65.00 - Out of stock

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Violence and the Sacred is Girard's brilliant 1972 study of human evil and the ritual role of sacrifice. Girard explores violence as it is represented and occurs throughout history, literature and myth. Girard's forceful and thought-provoking analyses of Biblical narrative, Greek tragedy and the lynchings and pogroms propagated by contemporary states illustrate his central argument that violence belongs to everyone and is at the heart of the sacred.

"His fascinating and ambitious book provides a fully developed theory of violence as the 'heart and secret soul' of the sacred. Girard's fertile, combative mind links myth to prophetic writing, primitive religions to classical tragedy."

1979 edition, 1994 printing.

René Noël Théophile Girard (1923—2015) was a French polymath, historian, literary critic, and philosopher of social science whose work belongs to the tradition of philosophical anthropology. Girard was the author of nearly thirty books, with his writings spanning many academic domains.

File under: René Girard John Hopkins University Press / Baltimore Philosophy Theory / Essay Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language Occult / Esoterica Ancient / Medieval / Gothic Psychoanalysis

The Severed Head: Capital Visions
by Julia Kristeva,

2014, English
Softcover, 176 pages, 21 x 14 cm
Published by Columbia University Press / New York

$55.00 - Out of stock

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Informed by a provocative exhibition at the Louvre curated by the author, The Severed Head unpacks artistic representations of severed heads from the Paleolithic period to the present. Surveying paintings, sculptures, and drawings, Julia Kristeva turns her famed critical eye to a study of the head as symbol and metaphor, as religious object and physical fact, further developing a critical theme in her work--the power of horror--and the potential for the face to provide an experience of the sacred.

Kristeva considers the head as icon, artifact, and locus of thought, seeking a keener understanding of the violence and desire that drives us to sever, and in some cases keep, such a potent object. Her study stretches all the way back to 6,000 B.C.E., with humans' early decoration and worship of skulls, and follows with the Medusa myth; the mandylion of Laon (a holy relic in which the face of a saint appears on a piece of cloth); the biblical story of John the Baptist and his counterpart, Salome; tales of the guillotine; modern murder mysteries; and even the rhetoric surrounding the fight for and against capital punishment. Kristeva interprets these "capital visions" through the lens of psychoanalysis, drawing infinite connections between their manifestation and sacred experience and very much affirming the possibility of the sacred, even in an era of "faceless" interaction.

File under: Julia Kristeva Columbia University Press / New York Philosophy Psychoanalysis Theory / Essay Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language Art Sociology / Politics Ancient / Medieval / Gothic

The Key of The Mysteries
by Eliphas Levi; translate by Aleister Crowley

1959, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 215 pages, 22 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by Rider / UK

$300.00 - In stock -

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Very rare first 1959 hardcover edition, first printing of Eliphas Levi's grimoire masterwork, The Key of the Mysteries, translated from the French, with an introduction and notes by Aleister Crowley, published by Rider, UK.

Eliphas Levi (1810-1875), born Alphonse Louis Constant, was a sage, poet and author of over twenty esoteric books. He began writing at 22 years of age and was imprisoned twice for the critical nature of his work. Eliphas Levi was steeped in the Western occult tradition and a master of the Rosicrucian interpretation of the Qabalah, which forms the basis of magic as practiced in the West today. The "Key of the Mysteries" represents the culmination of Levi's thoughts and is written with subtle and delicate irony. It reveals the mysteries of religion and the secrets of the Qabalah, providing a sketch of the prophetic theology of numbers. The mysteries of nature, such as spiritualism and fluidic phantoms, are explored. Magical mysteries, the Theory of the Will with its 22 axioms are divulged. And finally it offers "the great practical secrets." The true greatness of this work, however, lies in its ability to place occult thought firmly in Western religious traditions. For Levi, the study of the occult was the study of a divine science, the mathematics of God.

Éliphas Lévi Zahed (1810—1875), born Alphonse Louis Constant, was a French esotericist, poet, and writer. Initially pursuing an ecclesiastical career in the Catholic Church, he abandoned the priesthood in his mid-twenties and became a ceremonial magician. At the age of 40, he began professing knowledge of the occult.

Good—Very Good copy in Good seldom preserved dust jacket. DJ has general wear and tear to extremities, chipping. Book G—VG with foxing to end papers/block edges, previous owner's name, light tanning. Preserved in mylar wrap.

File under: Eliphas Levi Aleister Crowley Rider / UK Occult / Esoterica Out-of-print / Rare Theory / Essay Counterculture Ancient / Medieval / Gothic

Tarot Revelations
by Joseph Campbell & Richard Roberts; Introduction by Colin Wilson

1979, English
Softcover, 294 pages + fold-out, 21.5 x 14 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Richard Roberts / San Anselmo

$500.00 - In stock -

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Exceptionally rare, privately published first 1979 edition, first printing of this important study of the tarot. Tarot Revelations is an analysis of the mysterious philosophy in the ancient cards that became modern playing cards. Citing Dante, C.G.Jung, and early Gnostics and alchemists, Campbell and Roberts reveal a path that has spiritual meaning for everyone. Writing in collaboration with Richard Roberts, Joseph Campbell stated, "We have come to revelations of a grandiose poetic vision of Universal Man that has been for centuries the inspiration of saints and sinners, sages and fools, in kaleidoscopic transformations." According to Richard Roberts, "In the 22 cards comprising the Major Arcana, we have a genuine document of the soul's initiation into higher consciousness. As such the Major Arcana may be interpreted as a Western Book of the Dead."

Introduction by Colin Wilson: "For two centuries now, the human spirit has been in revolt against the world of the Gradgrinds, and their obsession with "facts, hard facts." The Romanticism of the 19th century was one long shout of defiance. The Romantics exaggerated the problem out of weakness and a sense of vulnerability. And people like Dick Roberts and Joseph Campbell are restoring it to perspective, and bringing about a reconciliation that is based on insight and strength. If they succeed, the intellectual perspective of the 21st century could be more exciting than anything we can imagine.—Colin Wilson

Campbell (1904-1987) was a professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who focused primarily on comparative mythology and religion. His concept of monomyth, in which all mythic narratives are variations on the same story, is far-reaching, and George Lucas has noted the influence of Campbell's work on the Star Wars saga. He and tarot scholar Richard Roberts collaborated on this work, praised by Theodore Rozak as "the most serious study of the Tarot I have seen" (front wrapper).

Illustrations throuhgout the text, folding colour plate of the Major Arcana at rear.

Very Good—NF likely unread copy with no spine creasing, light wear to corner extremities, price sticker remnants to lower back cover. Beautifully preserved copy of this very first rare edition. More common, though now also rare, editions were issued in 1982 and 1987 under "Vernal Equinox" imprint.

File under: Joseph Campbell Richard Roberts Colin Wilson Richard Roberts / San Anselmo Occult / Esoterica Ancient / Medieval / Gothic Theory / Essay Philosophy Renaissance / Neoclassicism / Romanticism

Histoire de l'insolite
par Romi

1964 , French
Hardcover, 192 pages, 30.5 x 24.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Pont Royal Del Duca - Laffont Paris

$100.00 - Out of stock

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First 1964 hardcover edition of Histoire de l'insolite (History of the Unusual) by Romi. Preface by Philippe Soupault, artistic design by Pierre Chapelot. An incredible visual survey of the weird and wonderful from the history of occultism to the absurd, the cabinet of curiosities to the voyages of science fiction, demonology to psychosis, the Fin de siècle, Futurists, Surrealists, Dadaists, Pataphysicians, the visionaries, the mediums, the curios, the macabre, the bizarre. Profusely illustrated in mono and duotone with many pasted-in lush colour plates, this is a beautiful visual reference of the fantastic throughout history. Chapters include (translated from French): The Sources of the Unusual - A Legendary Bestiary - Fantastic Voyages - The Design to Surprise - Unusual Enterprises, featuring Alfred Jarry, Giuseppe Arcimbaldo, P.T. Barnum, Edward Lear, Hélène Smith, Raymond Roussel, Alessandro Cagliostro, Stanislao Lepri, Hieronymus Bosch, Ferdinand Cheval, and hundreds of other artists, poets, mystics and unknowns. With a preface by none other than Surrealist founder, Dadaist, writer, poet, novelist, critic, political activist, Philippe Soupault (1897-1990).

Very Good copy, highly recommended.

File under: René Magritte Hans Bellmer Paul Delvaux Jean Tinguely Daniel Spoerri Marcel Duchamp Max Ernst Pierre Chapelot Salvador Dalí Jean Dubuffet Pablo Picasso Francis Picabia Felix Labisse Guy Bourdin Meret Oppenheim Claude Lalanne Claude and Francoise-Xavier Lalanne Francois-Xavier Lalanne Victor Brauner Hieronymus Bosch Man Ray Jean Cocteau Alfred Jarry Edward Lear Ferdinand Cheval Gustave Moreau Alessandro Cagliostro Stanislao Lepri Hélène Smith Gustave Doré Max-Walter Svanberg Pieter Bruegel the Elder Philippe Soupault Alfred Jarry Jean Cocteau Raymond Roussel Jacques Prévert Alessandro Cagliostro Hélène Smith Pont Royal Del Duca - Laffont Paris Surrealism Dada Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Out-of-print / Rare Theory / Essay Art Nouveau Réalisme / Zero / Kinetic Sculpture / Installation Painting Drawing Architecture / Interior Bauhaus Collage / Mail Art / Xerox Art Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Occult / Esoterica Photography Renaissance / Neoclassicism / Romanticism Ancient / Medieval / Gothic Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle Drugs / Psychedelia Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées

Alchemists through the Ages
by Arthur Edward Waite

1970, English
Softcover, 312 pages, 18 x 11 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Rudolph Steiner Press / New York

$65.00 - In stock -

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Rare first 1970 softcover edition published by Rudolph Steiner Press, New York.
Introduction by Paul M. Allen.

All the many personalities who have immortalized themselves in alchemical research through the centuries are in- troduced in this very readable, compact presentation for today's interest in this fascinating, age-old quest in the metamorphosis of the human being.

Mr. Waite shows that the real alchemists quest was not the goal of turning base metals into gold, but rather the unfolding of the human being, the releasing and manifest- ing of the higher self. Seen in this light, alchemy is of pro- found interest and vital concern to awakened interests in development of spiritual powers and potentialities. Throughout the book are beautiful, historically significant illustrations.

G—VG copy with some general wear to extremities, tanning.

File under: Arthur Edward Waite Paul M. Allen Rudolph Steiner Press / New York Ancient / Medieval / Gothic Occult / Esoterica Drugs / Psychedelia Out-of-print / Rare Theory / Essay

Magic, Supernaturalism and Religion
by Kurt Seligmann

1975, English
Softcover, 476 pages, 20 x 11.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Paladin / London

$35.00 - In stock -

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First 1975 English softcover edition of Magic, Supernaturalism and Religion, the classic illustrated study by Swiss-American Surrealist painter, engraver, and occultist Kurt Seligmann (1900—1962).

In this fascinating study the late Kurt Seligmann, the surrealist painter, gives a history of magical ideas and manifestations in the Western world to reveal the aesthetic value of magic and its influence on creative imagination. He brings forth a vivid picture of the religio-magical beliefs of ancient, medieval and modern times. He shows the growth and development of the magical world-view in its successive stages, beginning with Mesopotamian and Persian magic, assimilating Hebrew thought, Greek philosophy and Christian theology, through the mystical concept of a unified universe with its manifold correspondences and interrelations, which finds expression in pictorial motifs and symbols, in the magical arts of astrology, divination, physiognomy, chiromancy, fortune cards and other branches of 'occult science'. Along the way he presents some colourful personalities: Nostradamus, Dr Faustus, Pico della Mirandola, Agrippa, Trimethius, Gebelin, Mesmer, Cagliostro, Saint- Germain and others.

VG copy, general light wear.

File under: Kurt Seligmann Kurt Seligmann Paladin / London Occult / Esoterica Theory / Essay Drugs / Psychedelia Out-of-print / Rare Ancient / Medieval / Gothic

Distilling Knowledge: Alchemy, Chemistry, and the Scientific Revolution
by Bruce T. Moran

2005, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 210 pages, 21.5 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by Harvard University Press / Cambridge

$50.00 - Out of stock

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"Alchemy can't be science—common sense tells us as much. But perhaps common sense is not the best measure of what science is, or was. In this book, Bruce Moran looks past contemporary assumptions and prejudices to determine what alchemists were actually doing in the context of early modern science. Examining the ways alchemy and chemistry were studied and practiced between 1400 and 1700, he shows how these approaches influenced their respective practitioners' ideas about nature and shaped their inquiries into the workings of the natural world. His work sets up a dialogue between what historians have usually presented as separate spheres; here we see how alchemists and early chemists exchanged ideas and methods and in fact shared a territory between their two disciplines.

Distilling Knowledge suggests that scientific revolution may wear a different appearance in different cultural contexts. The metaphor of the Scientific Revolution, Moran argues, can be expanded to make sense of alchemy and other so-called pseudo-sciences—by including a new framework in which "process can count as an object, in which making leads to learning, and in which the messiness of conflict leads to discernment." Seen on its own terms, alchemy can stand within the bounds of demonstrative science.""

"Distilling Knowledge will prove to be the most important and valuable teaching or general-reader text on this subject available. I am often asked by students, colleagues, and interested members of the public to recommend such a 'general reader' text which could introduce them satisfactorily to alchemy and early chemistry. But there is no text that I could possibly recommend - not, that is, until this one. Thanks to Bruce Moran for writing this book and making my life easier."—Lawrence M. Principe, Johns Hopkins University

Bruce T. Moran is Professor of History, University of Nevada at Reno.

Fine copy in Fine dust jacket.

File under: Bruce T. Moran Harvard University Press / Cambridge Occult / Esoterica Ancient / Medieval / Gothic Out-of-print / Rare Theory / Essay Drugs / Psychedelia

Andreas Libavius and the Transformation of Alchemy: Separating Chemical Cultures with Polemical Fires
by Bruce T. Moran

2007, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 350 pages, 23.5 x 16 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by Science History Publications / USA

$85.00 - In stock -

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Rare first edition hardcover copy of Bruce T. Moran's 'Andreas Libavius and the Transformation of Alchemy: Separating Chemical Cultures with Polemical Fires'.

What lots of people called chymia in the early seventeenth century was a subject that the physician, alchemist, and schoolteacher Andreas Libavius believed needed sorting out. He called it "an art without an art." To establish what sort of thing chymia was would require rebuilding its definitions from the theoretical and practical ground up while cutting back the forest of obscure language and private meaning in which it existed.

Libavius took on the job, and in thousands of pages of toughly worded criticism ranging over alchemical, moral, medical, philosophical, and religious topics wielded a polemical blade to huge effect.

Libavius is one of the best remaining examples in the history of early modern chymistry of a figure forced to fit into descriptive historical spaces that were manifestly not his own. Beyond the book for which he is best known, the Alchemia (1597), many others (until now largely unknown and mostly ignored) provide a rich picture of the intellectual and cultural spaces within which he lived, quarrelled, and wrote. In these texts Libavius created moral arguments in defense of his own alchemically based version of chymia, used printed correspondence to collect and define the precise meanings of chemical terms and procedures, attacked and guarded views related to Scripture, clashed with physicians concerning alchemy and the preparation of chemical medicines, denounced the doctrines of Paracelsus, upheld the art of transmutation, and argued for the existence of powerful spirits and occult qualities in nature.

While philosophers must begin to understand the language and manual operations of craftsmen, artisans, Libavius proclaimed, needed to understand the causes and principles of natural philosophy.

When reason and practice combined, artisans and philosophers alike could then share a common physical and intellectual space where both played parts in making useful artefacts. The rational art involved in making things (joining philosophy with artisinal know-how) was, he declared, just as important in the labor of creating chemical compositions as in the work of controlling the health of the body (both personal and civic) and in the day to day exercise of cultivating moral virtue.

Bruce T. Moran is Professor of History at the University of Nevada, Reno where he teaches the history of early science and medicine. He is also the author of Distilling Knowledge: alchemy, chemistry, and the scientific revolution (Cambridge Mass.; London: Harvard University Press, 2005.

Fine copy in Fine dust jacket.

File under: Bruce T. Moran Andreas Libavius Science History Publications / USA Occult / Esoterica Out-of-print / Rare Theory / Essay Ancient / Medieval / Gothic Drugs / Psychedelia