1947 Rare First Edition - Four Centuries of Witch-Beliefs by R. Trevor Davies

Author: R. Trevor Davies.
Title: Four Centuries of Witch-Beliefs: With Special Reference to the Great Rebellion.
Publisher: London, Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1947. First Edition.
Language: Text in English.
Size: 8.5 x 5.5 inches.
Pages: xii, 222 pages.
Binding: Very good original publisher’s blue cloth binding, gilt-lettered on the spine (hinges fine, overall slightly scuffed - as shown) housed in a very good original dust jacket under a protective removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good content (bright, tight and clean, rare light toning mainly on endpapers - as shown).

Estimate: (USD 200–225).

The book: This First Edition of Four Centuries of Witch-Beliefs is a serious and carefully argued historical study tracing the rise, development, and decline of belief in witchcraft in England from the late Middle Ages through the seventeenth century, with particular emphasis on the period of the English Civil War (“the Great Rebellion”). Davies examines how theology, politics, law, and intellectual culture shaped attitudes toward witchcraft, drawing extensively on contemporary sources such as pamphlets, sermons, trial records, and the writings of key figures like James I, Bodin, and Reginald Scot. Written in a clear, measured scholarly style, the book remains a valuable mid-twentieth-century synthesis of witchcraft as a social and intellectual phenomenon rather than mere superstition.

The author: R. Trevor Davies (M.A., F.R.Hist.S.) was a respected historian associated with Oxford, serving as Dean of Degrees and Modern History Tutor at St. Catherine’s Society and as a University Lecturer in Spanish History. His work is characterized by careful use of primary sources, balanced interpretation, and attention to the broader political and religious context in which witch-beliefs flourished.