The Discoverie of Witchcraft

Discuss general aspects of Genii.
Richard Hatch
Posts: 2095
Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: Providence, Utah
Contact:

The Discoverie of Witchcraft

Postby Richard Hatch » November 17th, 2020, 2:11 pm

Here's a link to a recent blog on the Library of Congress site about Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft. One nice feature is that it includes a link to a digitized and downloadable pdf of the 1584 first edition from the McManus Young Collection.
https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2020/10/that-magical-mystical-book-on-witchcraft-from-1584/

Ian Kendall
Posts: 2631
Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: Edinburgh
Contact:

Re: The Discoverie of Witchcraft

Postby Ian Kendall » November 18th, 2020, 10:15 am

I love how the first edition draws the reader in with a false sense of comprehension with a fairly easy to read typeface and then, after thirty pages or so, slams you with Gothic Black type. I remember the jolt I got when I first saw it, almost twenty years ago :)

By the second ed, they had reverted to what is essentially Times New Roman (or the seventeenth century equivalent), which makes things easier...

PressureFan
Posts: 202
Joined: January 11th, 2015, 4:17 pm
Favorite Magician: Brian Gillis
Location: Pirate, AR

Re: The Discoverie of Witchcraft

Postby PressureFan » November 18th, 2020, 11:16 pm

I'm not seeing pages 297 and 298.

Richard Hatch
Posts: 2095
Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: Providence, Utah
Contact:

Re: The Discoverie of Witchcraft

Postby Richard Hatch » November 19th, 2020, 1:47 am

PressureFan wrote:I'm not seeing pages 297 and 298.

I'm not having that problem, either with the online version or the downloaded PDF.

Bill Mullins
Posts: 5913
Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: Huntsville, AL
Contact:

Re: The Discoverie of Witchcraft

Postby Bill Mullins » November 19th, 2020, 12:23 pm

Ian Kendall wrote: By the second ed, they had reverted to what is essentially Times New Roman (or the seventeenth century equivalent)


At least there was no 17th century equivalent of Comic Sans. Or Papyrus.

Jonathan Townsend
Posts: 8704
Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: Westchester, NY
Contact:

Re: The Discoverie of Witchcraft

Postby Jonathan Townsend » November 19th, 2020, 1:51 pm

Comic Sans was for "Bob". Not the guy with the pipe ;)

At a guess - choice of foreign languages by non-native speakers was used for similar effect.

User avatar
Zig Zagger
Posts: 504
Joined: March 20th, 2008, 6:59 pm
Favorite Magician: Aldo Colombini
Location: Germany
Contact:

Re: The Discoverie of Witchcraft

Postby Zig Zagger » November 19th, 2020, 4:59 pm

Ein großes Dankeschön, Richard, for sharing that link!
Tricks, tips, news, interviews, musings and fun stuff: Have a look at our English-German magic blog! http://www.zzzauber.com
Advancing the art in magic one post at a time (yeah, right!)

Ian Kendall
Posts: 2631
Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: Edinburgh
Contact:

Re: The Discoverie of Witchcraft

Postby Ian Kendall » November 19th, 2020, 6:54 pm

I think I still have a copy of Bob lying around here somewhere...


Return to “General”