Members of the Mercurii, the: Raphael, the Metropolitan Astrologer; The Editor of the Prophetic Almanack; and Other Sideral Artists of First-Rate Eminence ‘The Astrologer of the Nineteenth Century: Or, the Master Key of Futurity, and Guide to Ancient Mysteries, Being a Complete System of Occult Philosophy. Embellished with Five Beautifully Coloured Plates, and Ninety Illustrative Engravings of Horoscopes, Hieroglyphics, and Talismans’ The Seventh Edition[1], Supervised and Corrected, with Numerous Additions, by Merlinus Anglicus, Junior, Gent. – Printed for Knight and Lacey, Paternoster Row, London; and Westley and Tyrrell, Dublin, 1825[2].
Original cloth-covered boards (wear to extremities of spine and both outer and inner corners of boards, and to parts of top and bottom edges of boards; separation and wear to cloth down whole length of both spine hinges, but underlying binding still strong) with gilt-stamped title label to spine. (Light separation to rear inner paper hinge and extremities of front equivalent.) [3 pages of advertisements] + [pp. 4-8 of advertisements] + [pp. 1-3 of advertisements] + [1 page of advertisements] + [pp. 1-4 of advertisements] + [pp. 1-4 of advertisements] + [pp. 1-4 of advertisements] + [Coloured frontis. ‘Magic Ceremonies’] + [Half-title with coloured vignette] + [4] + [pp. v-xii] + 50 + [coloured plate ‘The Necromancer’] + [pp. 51-228] + [coloured plate ‘Necromancy’] + [p. 229-298] + [pp. 299-307 of tables] + [pp. 308-546] + [coloured plate ‘Awful Appearance of a Spirit to Lord Lyttleton’] + [pp. 547-560] + [4]
[1] So stated, but in fact only the second one-volume edition of the work under this ttile. It bears little resemblance to the original journal ‘The Straggling Astrologer’ (q. v.), which, as bound up in its original form, was sold as “The Astrologer of the Nineteenth Century – Sixth Edition”, lacking any of its date and issue structure, and is essentially a rambling compendium of material, some but not all taken from the original journal. Merlinus Anglicus Junior is believed a pseudonym for Robert Cross Smith (Raphael I), who is also mentioned as one of the Mercurii collectively credited with this work, alongside the Editor of the Prophetic Almanack, q. v., who preceded Smith in that job and was still in it at this time, Smith having taken over from the 1827 edition onwards, whereupon it was retitled The Prophetic Messenger
[2] The preceding half-title page has the variant title form of The Astrologer of the Nineteenth Century. Or the Master Key of Futurity, being a Complete System of Astrology, Geomancy & Occult Science, and originally credits the book to publication by William Charlton Wright, with this imprint overlain by a piece of glued-on paper for Knight and Lacey.
About this Book Scan
Carefully scanned in full colour from our complete original printing of the 1825 first edition thus, the nominal seventh edition.
In 1825, after the dissolution of the collectively edited magazine The Straggling Astrologer, first of all the remaining sheets of the original issues were bound up and sold as The Astrologer of the Nineteenth Century Sixth Edition. Then by the end of the same year, Robert Cross Smith, a.k.a. the first holder of the position of Raphael, using his some-time early pseudonym of Merlinus Anglicus Junior, had created a new book of 560 pages based loosely upon extracts from the magazine, with the addition of hundreds of pages of stories and other contents, which was sold as The Astrologer of the Nineteenth Century Seventh Edition, although in truth it was only the first edition of the standalone book created by Smith. This new composite work of Smith’s is nowadays prized chiefly for its several hand-coloured illustrations. It is this so-called ‘Seventh Edition’ (but really the first) that is scanned here.
For The Astrologer of the Nineteenth Century Sixth Edition, see instead our scan of the original bound magazine under its proper title of The Straggling Astrologer.