Royal Book Of Dreams: From an Ancient and Curious Manuscript, which Was Buried in the Earth During Several Centuries, Containing One-thousand & Twenty-four Oracles, or Answers to Dreams..

London: Orlando Hodgson. Hardcover. Very Good. 4" x 6.75" ...By a Curious, Yet Perfectly Facile and Easy Method, Void of All Abstruse or Difficult Calculations; Whereby Any Person of Ordinary Capacity May Discover Those Secrets of Fate, Which the Universal Fiat of All Nations, In Every Age and Clime, Has Acknowledged to be Portended By Dreams and Nocturnal Visions. [n.d., ca. 1830]. Scarce. [2], 161 p.p. Bound as 8vo. Rippled black cloth with blind filigree border, gilt titling and filigree to spine. Gilt heraldic device to front cover is the coat of arms of the Monarch of the United Kingdom. Roughly cut edges. Some damp staining and chafing to boards, bumping to spine ends, wear to spine tail at front joint, front hinge cracking. B&W folding frontis star chart, dated 1830. Contents include: A Brief Account of the Singular Manner in Which the Manuscript was Discovered; A Short Essay on Dreaming, with a succinct account of several famous dreams of the ancients and moderns; Lord Byron in the World of Spirits - A Vision; and The Method of Resolving the Interpretations in the Book of Dreams, by the Science of Geomancy. Ink ownership inscription of John Perceval to head of title page and first page of text, dated 1852, Kensington. Some foxing throughout, damp stains to head of p.p. 82-86, large chip off corner of p. 117 but text not affected, some ink and pencil annotations throughout. Else a very good copy. Writing as Raphael, the English astrologer Robert Cross Smith [1795-1832] was a founding member of the Society of Mercurii, an occult order in London that sparked an astrological and magic revival.