Eros and Magic in the Renaissance
Couliano, Ioan P. The University of Chicago Press, 1987. Softbound. First published in Paris in 1984 as Eros et magie à la Renaissance. Translated by Margaret Cook. 'Magic is the precursor of the modern psychological and sociological sciences,' the back cover copy says of this unorthodox study of elite occult manipulations, 'and the magician is the distant ancestor of the psychoanalyst and the advertising and publicity agent.' A hard-to-find book with a cover illustration featuring a detail from a woodcut from the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (printed by Aldus Manutius in 1554) and a foreword by Mircea Eliade, a former friend and mentor of Couliano, whose premature death at gunpoint has been written about by both Saul Bellow and Umberto Eco.
Tight, square, uncreased spine. Clean, unmarked interior. Only very gentle shelf-wear. 264 pp. Featured Rare & Collectible.
