Author: BEKKER, Balthasar.
Title: De betoverde weereld, zynde een grondig ondersoek van't gemeen gevoelen aangaande de geesten, deselver aart en vermogen, bewind en bedrijf; als ook't gene de menschen door derselver kraght en gemeenschap doen. In vier boeken ondernomen.
Description: Amsterdam, Daniel van den Dalen, 1691 - 1693.4 volumes in 1. 4to. Later green calf. With printer's woodcut device on titlepages and large woodcut depicting the Oldenburg Horn (without the portrait as often).First edition. - The impact of Bekker's book, The Bewitched World, was a seminal work in the undermining of superstition, an early and powerful blow against the authority of the Bible, a significant instrument for the weakening of the Church's hold on men's beliefs, and a primary contributor to the liberation of thought across northern Europe. It caused a major scandal and in 1692 Bekker was removed from his office in Amsterdam by the synod of Alkmaar, because of heterodoxy. (Age-browned).

Keywords: Holland