Rare first edition of a lottery manual claiming to reveal the predictions of famous occultist Joseph Balsamo, Count of Cagliostro. Published during Cagliostro's imprisonment by the Inquisition, it is the first known of its kind using his name, and most certainly the only one printed during his lifetime.
We are able to trace only two copies in libraries (BnF and Kress Library).
Numerous illustrations including a frontispiece showing Cagliostro giving lottery predictions, as well as 15 plates containing 90 vignettes depicting dreams, each associated with a lottery number. Also contains a folding leaf on the influence of sunrise and sunset on the French Royal Lottery draws.
Preceded by a leaf with a pasted press clipping, with a note “Combinations of the Royal Lottery Games /Extract from the Paris-Journal of 18 8bre 1878”.
Bound with: a rare pamphlet by Alexandre Dumas-Fils, Histoire de la loterie : depuis la première jusqu'à la dernière loterie. La loterie des lingots d'or. Preceded by a leaf with an inscribed note Histoire de la loterie des lingots d'or.
Green half cloth, smooth spine, gilt title framed by a double fillet border, marbled paper boards. Spine-ends, corners and joints rubbed, scuffs to boards, foxing to edges. Damp stain in the margin of the first 6 leaves of the Manual.
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