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DE BETOVERDE WEERELD ["The World Bewitched"] ... [in four books; bound with:] ARTICULEN TOT SATISFACTIE AAN DE EERW. CLASSIS VAN AMSTERDAM, VAN BALTHASAR BEKKER, OVERGELEVERD DEN 22 JANUARY 1692

DE BETOVERDE WEERELD ["The World Bewitched"] ... [in four books; bound with:] ARTICULEN TOT SATISFACTIE AAN DE EERW. CLASSIS VAN AMSTERDAM, VAN BALTHASAR BEKKER, OVERGELEVERD DEN 22 JANUARY 1692 by Bekker, Balthasar

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Seller: W. C. Baker Rare Books & Ephemera
Title
DE BETOVERDE WEERELD ["The World Bewitched"] ... [in four books; bound with:] ARTICULEN TOT SATISFACTIE AAN DE EERW. CLASSIS VAN AMSTERDAM, VAN BALTHASAR BEKKER, OVERGELEVERD DEN 22 JANUARY 1692
Author
Bekker, Balthasar
Seller
W. C. Baker Rare Books & Ephemera (United States)
Condition
Very good
Description
Amsterdam: Daniel van den Dalen, 1691. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. 1691-1693. Four books and one pamphlet in two volumes. Quarto. [4],[4],[16],138,[2];[8],262,[2];11; [8],32,188,[2];[6],277,[3] pp., including portrait frontispiece and facing description leaf in first volume and in-text illustration of the Oldenburg Horn on p. 141 of fourth book. Contemporary parchment, manuscript spine titles. Autograph signature of the author on half-title verso of first book, title-page verso of second book, and following the introductions of third and fourth books. Matching contemporary ownership inscriptions of C. V. D. Hell on title pages of first and third books; early ownership inscription of "[?]. [?]. v. d. Bosch" on front free endpaper of both volumes; 1961 gift inscription on front free title page of first volume; occasional contemporary underlining and marginalia throughout; booksellers' pencil notations in front and rear endpapers of both volumes. Boards bowed, parchment moderately soiled and, in first volume, turn-ins separating from boards; edges of first several leaves of first volume a bit worn (not affecting text), light scattered foxing. Very good. First full and authorized quarto edition of Balthasar Bekker's landmark work of demonology, spirit stories, comparative religion, modern biblical exegesis, and Cartesian metaphysics, complete with the rare allegorical frontispiece portrait and bound with both the synopsis, NAAKTE UITBEELDINGE VAN DE BETOVERDE WEERELD, and a pamphlet issued by the Classis of Amsterdam condemning the work and suspending Bekker from the ministry (see below). Bekker was a Dutch Reformed pastor and theologian, born in Friesland in 1634, educated at Groningen, and based in Amsterdam from 1679 to his death in 1698. Bekker's first major work, DE PHILOSOPHIA CARTESIANA ADMONITIO CANDIDA & SINCERA (Wesel, 1668), established his position that the theologian and the natural philosopher (or "scientist," in today's terms) represent two distinct domains of knowledge, neither of which should be understood with the other's mode of inquiry. In DE BETOVERDE WEERELD (the title translated into English alternately as "The World Bewitch'd" and "The World Turn'd Upside-Down"), his most famous work, Bekker explores concepts and accounts of the Devil, demonic possession, witches, and spirits across world religions, episodes in the Bible, European legends, and recent events. Using Cartesian thought, the hermeneutical principle of accommodation, and general empirical evidence, Bekker concludes that the notion of the Devil having power in the natural world is merely a remnant of pagan religion, misreading of the Bible, and result of superstition: it threatens the radical monotheism of the Abrahamic faiths, contradicts reason, and often results in catastrophe, including the burning of supposed witches. The work was fully translated into French and German within one year and two years, respectively, of the Dutch publication of its final book in 1693 and immediately caused an uproar. The Dutch Reformed Church in Amsterdam stripped Bekker of his position as minister because of the controversy (while maintaining his salary), but as Anna E. C. Simoni of the British Library wrote in 1980, "in the end his compassion for persecuted old women and his defence of God-given reason as a necessary part of religion, of equal importance with faith itself, carried the day." While considered one of the most important works of the early Enlightenment, THE WORLD BEWITCHED never became as well known in the English-speaking world as in continental Europe, as only the first book of the four was ever published in English translation, first as THE WORLD BEWITCH'D in 1695, then as THE WORLD TURN'D UPSIDE DOWN (introduced with a later summary of all four books), in 1700. The publication history of DE BETOVERDE WEERELD is unusually complex. Recent research by Dutch bibliographer Lesley Monfils has identified six distinct printings of the first two books issued between 1691 and 1693, all bearing the date 1691 on their title pages. Although a dispute between Bekker and his longtime Frisian publisher Hero Nauta led him to distance himself from editions issued at Leeuwarden, the present Amsterdam quarto represents the text Bekker personally authorized and authenticated through manuscript signatures in all four books. The first two books in the present copy belong to the fourth of Monfils's six identified printings, a state notable for its numerous press variants and evidence of Bekker's continuing involvement in revision during printing. Bound into the third book is NAAKTE UITBEELDINGE VAN DE BETOVERDE WEERELD (1693), a 32-page synopsis of the complete work published contemporaneously with the appearance of the final volumes. The first volume of the present set was also bound with the scarce 11-page pamphlet ARTICULEN TOT SATISFACTIE ... (Amsterdam: Gerardus Borstius, 1692), issued by the Classis of Amsterdam rejecting Bekker's defense of the first two books and suspending him as a minister of the church. The set is complete with the rare frontispiece portrait of Bekker by Frisian pastor and artist Johannes Hilarides (1649-1726), captioned, "Monothe-ist" and showing Bekker's head on a brick pedestal above poppies and a cavern, both emitting smoke and winged demons; inside the cavern lies Morpheus surrounded by "phantasmata." The interesting provenance marks of this set begin with the contemporary ownership inscription, "C. V. D. Hell. Sans fin," in both volumes, evidently the Dutch nobleman and amateur natural historian Casijn (or Cazijn) van der Hell (1644-1672). More recently, the set was inscribed in the first volume as a gift to "Dr. S. H. Spanjaard" in 1961 "Uit dankbaarheid [with gratitude]" by an unknown donor. Salco Herman Spanjaard (1904-1971) was a Dutch pastor and theologian of Jewish heritage who had been forced into hiding during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. Linde 16, 17, 19, 20, 32. Caillet 915 (1694 French-language edition). Dorbon-Ainé 267 (1694 ed.). Thorndike VIII, pp. 531, 583. Anna E. C. Simoni, "Balthasar Bekker: Some Recent Additions," in THE BRITISH LIBRARY JOURNAL, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Spring 1980), pp. 108-122. Lesley Monfils, "A Book Goes Through the World Distribution and Early Owners of Balthasar Bekker's THE ENCHANTED WORLD (1691)" in YEARBOOK FOR DUTCH BOOK HISTORY, VOLUME 11 (2004). STCN 134871901 (Part I), 134871758 (Part II), 842440445 (Part III), 842440151 (Part IV), 843294752 (ARTICULEN TOT SATISFACTIE ... ), 842407766 (NAAKTE UITBEELDINGE ... ).

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