Marrin's Bookshop

Synopsis

Esoteric interpretations of the hermetic symbols of the great work. translated from the french by mary sworder. with prefaces by eugene canseliet, f.c.h. introduction by walter lang.

Item Description

8vo. 9.5 x 6.5 inches. 190 + [1] pp. Bound in original maroon cloth, gilt, in unclipped pictorial dust wrapper, which is worn on front and at edges, including head and tail of spine and with publisher's advertisements on rear wrapper. A little wear to extremities, occasional traces of foxing and some creased page edge corners; otherwise a very good copy. Illustrated by frontispiece and 49 pages of photographic plates, two in colour, the rest black and white. Fulcanelli is stated to be the name of a French alchemist, who gave the manuscript of The Mystery of the Cathedrals to his pupil, Eugene Canseliet (1899-1902) in the early 1920s and charged him with publishing it; this was done in Paris in 1926. The illustrated text is an interpretation of the mystical meaning of the stone sculptures of three of the great French gothic cathedrals, Paris, Amiens and Bourges (to which is added the Cyclic Cross of Hendaye, the frontier town in the Basque country).