Beschreibung:

The Works of Jacob Behmen, The Teutonic Theosopher. Translated by William Law. Author: Boehme, Jacob Place Published: London Publisher: Printed for M. Richardson Date Published: 1764-1781 Description: 4 volumes. xxiii, [1], 269, [7], 301, [1], [20]; [4], 195, [34], [3], 120, 160, 32; [12], 507, [1], [26], 37; [8 (incl. errata)], 304, 218, [7] pp. With copper-engraved frontispiece portrait & 25 copper-engraved plates, 2 of them hand-colored, 2 folding, and 4 with overlays (including one of the folding plates). (4to) 30.3x23 cm (12x9"), original boards, rebacked with modern brown morocco, spines tooled in gilt. First Edition, first issue of the collected works. An exceptional copy, untrimmed in the original boards, of the greatest occult text in English, famous for its superb engravings. The collation of the present copy is in agreement with Caillet’s (Manuel bibliographique des sciences psychiques ou occultes), and the book evidences the earliest state of the title pages, plates, and texts. Behmen’s Works is a bibliographically complex text which has never been properly or completely catalogued. Alan Pritchard’s bibliography of Alchemy (Alchemy: A Bibliography of English-Language Writings, entries 333.1 [wrongly printed as “331.1”] and 333.2), notes some of the differences between the first and second issues (which Pritchard simply calls “versions”), most pertinently in recording that 3 texts in volume IV (The Way to Christ, A Discourse between a Soul, and A Treatise of the Four Complexions) were printed in two different forms. (These different forms actually comprise two different translations of the text; and the two printings of the texts are of different length, and contain different signature markings and page numberings.) Beyond this (and unnoted by Pritchard et al.), the complex folding plate “The Origin of Things, and the Process of Christ” also exists in two issues (printed on two different qualities of paper), with the 2nd issue containing an additional section of overlay. Copies of Behmen’s Works exist in mixed states: the Getty copy, for example, has been bound with both issues of the retranslated texts, whereas the Manly Hall copy appears to have been bound with only the 2nd-issue translations. Many surviving copies of Behmen’s Works are lacking some of the plates, and copies with a complete suite of their engravings are quite scarce. Condition: Expected rubbing and edge wear to boards; some darkening and other internal aging, 19th century ownership signatures; very good or better condition, in rare state. Item#: 369452 Headline: Works of Jacob Boehme untrimmed in original boards