Bad Bungle
Tutti but not Frutti.
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2018
- Messages
- 4,116
- Location
- The Chilterns
Harry Price (of Borley Rectory fame) amassed a "Magical Library" of around 13,000 volumes on magic, parapsychology, witchcraft, psychical research and the like, which were bequeathed in 1948 to the UCL Senate House Library (Camden New Journal yesterday). Price was also an amateur Magician and Senate House has taken about 80 items to form the basis of a new Exhibition 'Staging Magic: The Story behind the Illusion' The exhibits include a first edition of Reginald Scott's The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584), the first printed book in English to describe a magic trick; as well as the 1634 edition of Hocus Pocus Junior: The Anatomie of Legerdemain (sleight of hand). This last book set the formula for conjuring manuals over the next 250 years (including the rabbit-from-a-top-hat trick believed to be first performed by the 19th Century magician John Henry Anderson).
Anyway, Senate House Library WC1E 7HU until June 15 admission free. If I ever get a lunch-break I'll go and report back on its worthiness.
Anyway, Senate House Library WC1E 7HU until June 15 admission free. If I ever get a lunch-break I'll go and report back on its worthiness.
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