GODWIN, William - Lives of the Necromancers. or, an Account of the Most Eminent Persons......

London: Frederick J. Mason, 1834. First Edition. Hardcover. Large Octavo. xx + 466pp (+ iipp publisher's adverts). Very Good+. A rare copy in the original cloth boards of this fascinating work by a man better known for being the husband of Mary Wollstonecraft and the father of Mary Shelley. Housed in a matching custom slipcase with chemise wrapper. An intelligent, skeptical account of witchcraft and the occult throughout history - far broader than the modern definition of Necromancy would allow. The chapters are divided into the following sections: Introduction; Ambitious Nature of Man; Examples of Necromancy and Witchcraft from the Bible; Greece; Rome; Revolution Produced in the History of Necromancy and Witchcraft upon the Establishment of Christianity; History of Necromancy in the East; Dark Ages of Europe; Communication of Europe and the Saracens; Revival of Letters; Sanguinary Proceedings against Witchcraft; Conclusion. The work includes one of the more important early nineteenth century biographical studies of Dee, of whom Godwin give a largely sympathetic, detailed account. That Godwin judged Dee to be of considerable importance can be seen from the fact that he devoted some 25 pages to his biography, and less than a page to Nostradamus. In 1835 it was reviewed by Edgar Allan Poe of the Southern Literary Messenger.