Item #5653 Anacalypsis: An Attempt to Draw Aside the Veil of the Saitic Isis; or an Inquiry into the Origin of Languages, Nations and Religions. Godfrey Higgins.
Anacalypsis: An Attempt to Draw Aside the Veil of the Saitic Isis; or an Inquiry into the Origin of Languages, Nations and Religions
Anacalypsis: An Attempt to Draw Aside the Veil of the Saitic Isis; or an Inquiry into the Origin of Languages, Nations and Religions
Anacalypsis: An Attempt to Draw Aside the Veil of the Saitic Isis; or an Inquiry into the Origin of Languages, Nations and Religions
Anacalypsis: An Attempt to Draw Aside the Veil of the Saitic Isis; or an Inquiry into the Origin of Languages, Nations and Religions
Anacalypsis: An Attempt to Draw Aside the Veil of the Saitic Isis; or an Inquiry into the Origin of Languages, Nations and Religions

Anacalypsis: An Attempt to Draw Aside the Veil of the Saitic Isis; or an Inquiry into the Origin of Languages, Nations and Religions

New York: Macy-Masius, 1927. Limited to 350 copies, this being 126. 2 vols, large quartos, 30x22cm, xxxi, [6], 734pp and [4], 735-867, [5], xi, [1], 519pp plus [6] pages of plates at rear. Publisher's decorated gray cloth, black morocco labels lettered in gilt on upper board and spine, top edges gilt. A nearly fine, clean and sound set with a bit of rubbing to spines. Cut out bookseller's advertisement for the first edition of 1836 attached to ffep in vol 1 via paperclip, with corresponding rust stain. Front fly partially split from hinge at bottom, else both volumes clean internally.

The Macy-Masius edition of English historian, Godfrey Higgins's [1772-1833] sweeping work on syncretism.  This publication represents the first full reprint of the work, originally published in 1836 in an edition of 200 copies, and partially reprinted in 1878.  In it, Higgins argues for the tracing of all religions and languages back to a great, lost race of Atlantis, which gave birth to the systems of the ancient races such as the Chaldeans, Egyptians, and Druids.  

The publication was quite influential on the early theosophical writings of Helena Blavatsky, who echoed its ideas and even title in her major text, Isis Unveiled.  F. Leigh Gardner in his Catalogue Raisonné also notes the work's Rosicrucian content:


"This monument of learning and research could hardly be complete without a reference to the Rosicrucians.  He... states his opinion that this and other Secret Orders existed long before Christianity.... 'The Papist Convocations and Councils had always endeavoured to suppress these Orders because they were Christians before the rise of Romish Christianity."

A very important, influential, and in all editions, uncommon publication.  

Gardner vol. 1 243, citing the 1836 edition.
. Item #5653

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