?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 5,000
Webster, John (1610-1682) The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft. Wherein is affirmed that there are many sorts of Deceivers and Impostors.
London: Printed by J.M., 1677.
First edition, folio, imprimatur bound opposite the title page (torn with loss to top border of type ornaments, repaired with Japanese tissue); bound in full modern sheepskin; edges not trimmed at time of rebinding, retaining original edge marbling; modern endleaves; with 1677 signature of George Skippe to title page, and a note of the purchase price (9? shillings); edges of title and first leaf of dedicatory epistle reinforced with mending tissue; page 175/176 with tear to blank margin, lower outside corner; a few other small holes and short tears to contents; 11 1/4 x 7 1/2 in.
Webster was a cleric and physician who maintained a strong interest in occult matters but was a skeptic on the subject of witchcraft. He argues that witchcraft accusations grow out of delusions due to "melancholy and fancy." In his view, the claim that witches make a "corporeal league" with the devil and "are turned into cats, dogs, raise tempests, or the like, is utterly denied and disproved."
