[Rarebooks] fa: ATHENIAN MERCURY 1692-93 - SALEM WITCH TRIALS, INCREASE MATHER &c.

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, along with other 17th, 18th, & 19th-century titles, auctions ending Sunday, October 28. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/97rae6c

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.


The Athenian Mercury. Vol. 9, Numb. 5. Tuesday, December 27, 1692 [and] Vol. 10, Numb. 26. Saturday, June 24, 1693. London: Printed for John Dunton at the Raven in the Poultrey, 1692-93. Two sheets, folio (32.5 x 19.5 cm.; 12 3/4 x 7 3/4 in.), printed on both sides. Mild toning and wear to the edges, one issue with a small hole in the lower portion affecting a few letters on the recto only, otherwise clean and sound.
Two issues of this popular English coffeehouse newspaper, both with near-contemporary references to the Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692. The earlier issue features an advertisement in large type announcing the imminent publication of Cotton Mather's The Tryals of several Witches, lately Executed in New-England, with many remarkable Curiosities therein Occurring, &c. (published in America as Wonders of the Invisible World). The later issue opens with a reader asking the newspaper's editors for their reaction to some of the more bizarre events reported out of New England. The question and answer take up the entire left-hand column of the first page.
In keeping with the eclectic nature of the Mercury, these issues also feature questions on spontaneous generation in "Froggs"; whether a man whose friend "some time since kill'd a Gentleman" in a duel is obliged to testify against him ; "Who was the first Inventor of drinking Coffee?"; etc., etc.


The Athenian Mercury. Vol. 10, Numb. 6. Saturday, April 15, 1693 [and] Vol. 10, Numb. 21. Tuesday, June 6, 1693. London: Printed for John Dunton at the Raven in the Poultrey, 1693. Two sheets, folio (32.5 x 19.5 cm.; 12 3/4 x 7 3/4 in.), printed on both sides. Mild toning and wear to the edges, small stitch-holes to the left edges, one issue with a stain at the top margin and faint damp-stain to the margins, otherwise clean and sound.
Two issues of this popular English coffeehouse newspaper, both with material relating to Increase Mather, Puritan minister, father of Cotton Mather, and one of the most influential figures in the early history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The later of the two issues features an advertisement in large type announcing the imminent publication of "Mr. Increase Mather's New Discourse concerning the New-England WITCHES and WITCHCRAFTS…" The first issue is devoted entirely to a refutation of Mather's pamphlet attacking the Anglican Church, The Unlawfulness of Common-Prayer Worship, a work, according to the newspaper's editor, "written with as little Charity as Judgment."