La Belle magie ou Science de l'esprit

First edition.

Rare copy of this esoteric work by Lazare Meyssonnier, physician and "professor of the science of spirit", on demonology and diabolic possession, the theology of the names of God and Hebrew Kabbalah, the various types of magic, operative alchemy, anatomy, angelology..

Full calf, spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt fillets and fleurons, faded gilt-lettered title, new endpapers added, speckled edges. Joints split, a few scuffs to the leather, gilt partly faded, first three leaves browned, a few tears, dampstaining to a majority of the leaves, and wormholes without loss to the text. Plates lacking, but retains its in-text plate depicting the various states of mercury (p. 543).

The work formed part of the celebrated occult library of Stanislas de Guaïta, with his well known ownership inscription as well as his autograph annotations regarding its quality and provenance.

Stanislas de Guaïta underscores the importance of the present copy, "Peculiar and very rare book", and further adds another annotation: "In this copy the engravings are wanting". Although lacking its illustrations, the work attracted the bibliophile's attention, as it is in any case so rare that surviving copies have often suffered the ravages of time: even the BnF's copy is missing several leaves.

Guaïta's collection of books and manuscripts on alchemy, witchcraft, magic, astrology, magnetism, spiritism and other esoteric fields is regarded as one of the most complete and scholarly of its kind. Comprising 2,227 volumes, both early and contemporary, some of them of extreme rarity, his library remains a reference for the study of esotericism. Guaïta proved to be a passionate bibliomaniac as well as a genuine specialist in the occult sciences: he also made practical use of his library, which he used in the writing his Essai des sciences maudites.

Guaïta further notes that the copy came from the sale of the libraries of the celebrated spiritists, Baron Güldenstubbe and the Comte d'Ourches (Librairie Adolphe Geering, Basel, 1890), sales at which he made several acquisitions of major importance. This copy appears under no. 1618 of Guaïta's own posthumous sale. Its catalogue published in 1898 and 1899 by the Librairie Dorbon remains a staple of esoteric bibliography. The copy also bears the engraved ex-libris of the leading authority on Stanislas de Guaïta, Guy Bechtel, author of Notules sur l'art de distinguer les ouvrages provenant des bibliothèques de Monsieur Stanislas de Guaita, 1861-1897, avec plusieurs exemples et les reproductions nécessaires à une juste appréciation (1998).

Personal copy of Stanislas de Guaïta, whose library still serves today as a reference for the study of the occult sciences.

Yve-Plessis, Bibliographie française méthodique & raisonnée de la Sorcellerie et de la possession démoniaque, no. 248.

Provenance: Güldenstubbe et du comte d'Ourches sale (Librairie Adolphe Geering, Basel, 1890), no. 427.

Guaïta sale (Stanislas de Guaita et sa bibliothèque occulte, Librairie Dorbon, Paris, 1899), n° 1618.

Guy Bechtel (engraved bookplate on flyleaf).