Sibly and the "Discoverie"

The introduction to "The Station of Man in the Universe" also deals with the relationship between the last part of "A New and Complete Illustration of the Celestial Science of Astrology" and the 1665 edition of Reginald Scot's "The Discoverie of Witchcraft".

The 1665 edition included additional chapters by an anonymous author who, unlike Scot, was not skeptical of magic. Sibly drew heavily on these chapters for his description of magic. However, they were not included in the Montague Summers edition of the "Discoverie" that was reprinted by Dover Publications.

Outside of a reprint of a critical edition of the 1665 edition produced in 1975, which is not widely available, the material Sibly drew on has been out of print since the 1880s.

Created: 2014-10-14 22:56:35