Geography of Witchcraft Montague Summers

Description

Summers, Montague. The Geography of Witchcraft. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1927. First American edition of Montague Summers seminal history of Witchcraft.

8vo, original black cloth boards. Very fine condition. Spine intact, cosmetic breaks in three places. Some rubbing along edges, front board corners slightly bent and frayed. Partial dust jacket. Black and White engravings throughout.

Written by controversial 20th-century scholar Montague Summers, The Geography of Witchcraft served as the second in his original trilogy of books on witchcraft, the follow up to 1926’s The History of Witchcraft and Demonology and the precursor to his 1928 translation into English of the Malleus Maleficarum, also known as The Hammer of the Witches.

After graduating from Oxford and being ordained as a deacon in the Anglican church in 1907, Summers converted to Catholicism. He began styling himself as The Reverand Alphonsus Joseph-Mary Augustus Montague Summers, but no evidence exists of his formal ordination as a priest.

Dogged throughout his life accusations of pederasty (for which he was charged and acquitted) as well as Satanism, for which he was not, Summers’ works drip with the fanatical obsession and hatred for all things occult.

One of only 1040 copies, the book is scarce on its own and almost unknown with even a fragmented dustjacket.

 

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