Raphael, Edwin ‘Raphael’s Private Instructions[1] in Genethliacal Astrology – Being Adapted for those who are a little advanced in the study of astrology’ No Publisher Stated, London, 1881 (internally printed date) / 1885 (date on binding)[2].
Original cloth (worn to extremities of spine and along parts of rear hinge, and to outer corners of boards; light wear along other edges; some separation to both inner paper hinges, but underlying binding strong). (Previous owner’s insertion in blue pencil to p. 31.) Contents printed in facsimile manuscript on single-sided leaves throughout. [1 leaf] + [leaves 2-110]
[1] As printed on the internal title page. The title stamped to the front board is instead: ‘Raphael’s Private Lessons in Astrology’
[2] Until other evidence proves otherwise, this is presumed to be the first commercially distributed printing. The 1885 date is stamped into the front board, in common with copies recorded in public libraries. The volume would appear to have been printed and bound in 1885 although the manuscript in which it was sourced was finished in 1881, barring the possibility of an earlier unrecorded 1881 printing and binding predating this one
About this Book Scan
The serving editor of Raphael’s Almanac in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was Robert Thomas Cross. He also wrote several books on astrology and other esoteric and divinatory topics under the pen-name Edwin Raphael during his tenure of the editorship of the almanac.
One of his books that was sought after by the serious student of astrology in those days was Raphael’s Private Instructions in Genethliacal Astrology, which was not typeset but printed from the author’s own handwritten manuscript, giving it a distinctive charm. It was first published thus in 1881. The present binding however is dated 1885, suggesting that it was a later issue of the first edition. Whether or not any text changes were made over the first printing of 1881 is unclear in the absence of a copy for comparison purposes, but the retained internal date of 1881 suggests this is unlikely.
A later edition, internally retitled Raphael’s Private Lessons in Genethliacal Astrology, appeared in 1903, and is separately available for download from Astrolearn. According to our inspections, the manuscript that is the source of the later printing was written out completely afresh, although there are only selective changes to the text. It bears close comparison with the very early edition offered here to see what Cross decided to change and why.