Recueil De Dissertations Anciennes Et Nouvelles; Sur les Apparitions, les Visions & les Songes.

Avignon & Paris:: Jean-Noel Leloup,, 1751.. First Edition.. 8vo. Two parts in one, complete in itself.. ¥6,a-q12,h4,A-H12, ¹2,A-M12. Old calf with rules in gilt & blind, rebacked, spine banded, title gilt, second D12 with minor repair, no affect, inner margin of *1 repair, no affect, some pencil marks, minor foxing. Overall, a nice copy. Lenglet DuFresnoy (1674-1755) French historian and first bibliographer of alchemy. "His passion was to write, think, act, and live, with a kind of cynical freedom; and though badly lodged, clothed, and fed, he was still satisfied; which liberty, libery to say and write what he pleased; which liberty, however, he carried to so great an extreme, and so starngely abused, that he was sent to the bastille ten or twelve times." [-Chalmers]This volume contains his long dissertation on apparitions as well as, selections from various works on examples of apparitions; legal documents relating to them and various short pieces, including the "Recit De La Conference Du Diable Avec Luther" by the Abbe De Cordemoy. This copy is complete in itself. A second volume (also in 2 pts.) was published a year later. Caillet 6498. Esoterica 2631. Cornell, Witchcraft, 344. Coumont L53.2.