$1,200
Drage, William (1637? -1669) Daimonomageia. A Small Treatise of Sicknesses and Diseases from Witchcraft and Supernatural Causes . London: by J. Dover, 1665. Quarto, first edition, variant without the author's name on the title (Wing D-2117); [Bound with] The Mowing-Devil: or Strange News out of Hartford-shire. Being a True Relation of a Farmer, who Bargaining with a poor Mower, about the cutting down three half acres of oats, upon the mower's asking too much, the farmer swore that the devil should mow it, rather than he, and so it fell out, that that very night, the crop of oats appeared so neatly mow'd by the devil, or some infernal spirit, no mortal man was able to do the like . [London?: s.n., 1678], quarto, only edition, with a woodcut of the devil mowing, three copies in U.S. libraries, 4 pages; both books bound in later half calf, joints cracked, spine becoming detached. A rare pamphlet whose title page woodcut, depicting the devil as he mows a field of oats in concentric circles, suggests the look of a crop circle. Three U.S. locations: Yale, Duke and Princeton.
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2012-11-18