Magnalia Christi Americana – Cotton Mather – 1702 | First Edition History of New England

Cotton Mather’s Magnalia Christi was a 1702 survey of New England and Massachusetts. It has since become the most authoritative and desirable work of colonial Americana. In it, Mather tells of early settlements, along with lives of important governors and magistrates.

Mather, a Puritan, played a significant role in the Salem Witch Trials, convicting many of witchcraft and demonic possession, offering detailed descriptions of the Trials themselves; criticizing many of the methods used by courts. This book warns against not only witchcraft, but also against devils, the Separatists, Familists, Antinomians, Quakers, clerical imposters, and even Native American Indians

Noteworthy bibliographical entries say of this book:

• “Mather’s Magnalia is the most famous American book of colonial times and the indispensable source for colonial social history” (Streeter 658)
• “the most important 18th-century American book” (Howes M 391)

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Magnalia Christi Americana: or, the Ecclesiastical History of New-England, from Its First Planting in the Year 1620. unto the Year of our Lord, 1698. In Seven Books
• Author(s): Cotton Mather
• Publisher: London: Printed for Thomas Parkhurst, at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside
• Edition: First Edition, 1702
• Format: F olio (single volume)
• Binding: Modern, professional leather binding
• Size:  12.5in ×  8in (32 cm × 21 cm)
• Collation:
  • I. [30], 38 p., [1] map
    • wanting p.1-8
  • II. [2], 75, [1] p.;
  • III. [2], 238 p.;
  • IV. [2], 125–222 p.;
  • V. 100 p.;
  • VI. [2], 88 p.;
  • VII. 118, []
    • wanting p. 115-118, [2]
• Illustrations: portion of original map retained
• Contents Include: All 7 books
  • Antiquities
  • Ecclesiarum clypei
    • Includes “Upon the Death of Sir William Phips”
  • Polybius
  • Sal gentium
  • Acts and monuments
  • Thamaturgus
  • Ecclesiarum praelia
• Reference(s): Sabin 46392; Howes M 391; Lowndes 1512; Streeter 658

Condition:

Professionally restored leather binding. Beautiful display with tight hinges.

Why Collect This?

• First edition of one of the most historically significant early American books
• Includes map of early colonial Massachusetts
• First-hand accounts of the Salem Witch Trials
• One of the most cited colonial American historical sources

Item Number: #29048