Hocus Pocus Junior [Elias Piluland] | "The first illustrated book completely devoted to conjuring," in German

Hocus Pocus Junior [Elias Piluland]

Vielvermehrter Hocus Pocus Oder Taschen-Spieler. [S.l: s.n.,] 1668

8vo (156 x 95 mm). Half-title, woodcut frontispiece printed in red with text on all 4 sides printed in black; title-page printed in red and black, numerous woodcut text illustrations (of which one full-page), printed in fraktur type; browned throughout. Later stiff vellum, yapp edges, manuscript title on spine.

Scarce third German edition of this early and important conjuring book, a translation of the famous Hocus Pocus Junior, first published in 1634 and described by Harold Adrian Smith as "one of the priceless gems of magical antiquity, and one of the earliest milestones in conjuring literature … no single item in the whole realm of magical literature is sought for with more zeal than this ephemeral little jewel" (Books at Brown, Volume XXIV, 1987. Essays by Harold Adrian Smith on rare magic books, p. 32). According to Smith it is "the first illustrated book completely devoted to conjuring" (p. 43). "The German copies of Hocus Pocus Junior are fully as rare as the original English editions … the German edition has, in each case, a preface signed by Elias Piluland,' and the book is usually ascribed to him. I know of five editions" (p. 44). Smith lists this as the second German edition, despite the title-page statement "zum drittenmahl vermehret." Toole Stott notes that it is a "free translation from the English Hocus Pocus Junior, augmented by some new tricks" (Toole-Stott, Circus, III, p. 314, 108). The frontispiece depicts Hiccius Doctius standing behind a table laden with props.

A second part to the work appeared in 1669 under the title Vielvermehrter Hocus Pocus, Zweiter Theil oder Kunst und Wunderbuch, comprising 82 pages with the same woodcut frontispiece except in black and white. The present copy, like those in Worldcat, does not include this second part.

REFERENCE:

VD17 39:115581W (part I only)