1691 De Betoverde Weereld original 1st Print of (The World Bewitched)

Bekker and the ending of Witchcraft

 

The more uncommon and rare first edition of Bekker's book!  Very good condition.

Four books in one. 1691-1693. Original, solid vellum binding.

Arguably, Bekker was instrumental in ending witchcraft persecution throughout Europe.

His concern with the subject of demonic possession back to the 1680s when he began preaching against superstition

Does contain the 'medieval horn' plate in book four but does not contain the original frontispiece of the author as found in some first edition Bekker's book, but a facsimile

is included. 

It was published in several languages and is considered a very significa Balthasar Bekker (20 March 1634 – 11 June 1698) was a Dutch minister and author of philosophical and theological works.

Opposing superstition, he was a key figure i persecutions in early modern Europe. His best-known work is De Betoverde Weereld (1691), or The World Bewitched (1695). His best-known work was De Betoverde Weereld - World Bewitched added in (1695), in which he examined critically the phenomena generally ascribed to spiritual agency.

He attacked the belief in sorcery and "possession" by the questioned the devil's very existence.

He applied the doctrine of accommodation to account for the biblical passages traditionally cited on the issue.

The book had a sin one of the key works of the Early Enlightenment in Europe.

 It was almost certainly the most controversial.

Bekker became a heroic figure defying an army of obscurantist

The publication of the book led to Bekker's deposition from the ministry.

The orthodox among Dutch theologians saw his views as placing him among notorious atheists Koerbagh, Lodewijk Meyer and Baruch Spinoza.

Eric Walten came to his defense, attacking his opponents in extreme terms.

Bekker was tried for blasphemy, maligning spreading atheistic ideas about Scripture.

Some towns banned the book, but Amsterdam and the States of Holland never did, continuing his salary, without formally stripping it.

"In the 1978 Spring issue of this journal Dr. Hans Henning recalled that executions for witchcraft continued in Germany and Switzerland until 1782.

If they came to an e that date in England and some other countries, this is due in no small measure to Balthasar Bekker and his epoch-making book De Betoverde Weereld, first published a Amsterdam in 1691, 1693.

It was translated into English in 1695, into French as Le Monde enchanter {1694), and into German as Die bezauherte Welt {c. 1695).

It also controversy and cost Bekker his position as minister of the Dutch Reformed Church at Amsterdam—though without loss of income.

Yet in the end his compassion for pe his defense of God-given reason as a necessary part of religion, of equal importance with faith itself, carried the day.

 (Anna Simoni, Balthasar Bekker:  some recent additions).

 

The Bewitched World argued lucidly and effectively against the popular belief in spirits and the power of the devil over human beings claiming such beliefs were insupportable either by reason or by a careful reading of the Bible.

It has been claimed that Bekker's book was such an effective attack on these ideas that he all but single-handedly caused the demise of the witchcraft trials and devil-based persecutions that had plagued northern Europe for much of the 17th Century.

While it is easy to exaggerate the impact of Bekker's book, it is clear that The Bewitched World was a seminal work in the undermining of superstition, an early and powerful blow against the authority of the Bible, a significant instrument for the weakening of the Church's hold on men's beliefs, and a primary contributor to the liberation of thought across northern Europe. Contemporary vellum binding with worn, title handwritten on spine.

A lovely first edition copy of one of the major works of the Radical Enlightenment. 

 

*****A Must Have if You Collect Books about Religious History and Christianity*****

These books are extremely scarce and will soon be lost from the journals of time!