Haen, Anthonie de

De magia liber. Leipzig, I.P. Kraus, 1775.

      8°: *-**8 A-V8 [V8 blank], pag.: XXVIII, [4] 316 [2]. Cont. paper boards, covers and spine worn. Uncut copy of this rare publication. Antonius de Haen (1704-1776) was one of the best pupils of Herman Boerhaave and became a doctor in his place of birth The Hague, where he ran a wellvisited practise. Due to his fame and reputation he was appointed professor in Vienna. He became the personal physician of empress Maria Theresia. Except for his many publications in the field of medicine he wrote two wellknown tracts to fight the superstition of the people: De magia (1774) en De miraculis (1775). In reaction to these publications De Haen’s reputation was seriously attacked by his fellow physicians and later biographers. They condemned his supposed defence of magic and superstition. However, that was unjust. Boersma writes that De Haen only attempted to provide generally acceptable rules to unmask fraud in an invironment in which the existence of magic was disputable. The present edition of De magia is probably the second, published in Leipzig as the first edition.