Remarkable Providences Illustrative of the Earlier Days of American Colonisation (International Folklore series)

A facsimile reprint of the 1856 edition.  20,[18], 264, [2]pp.  Green cloth-covered boards with black titles front and spine.  8vo. Boards a little faded, gently rounded on corners and spine ends.  An ex university library copy with a call number of the spine, usual markings on front endpapers, and small stamp on the copyright page, else internally neat. clean, bright and tight.

Increase Mather was a New England puritan clergyman (1639-1723) who served as president of Harvard College from 1685 to 1701, a period which spanned the Salem Witch Trials, with which he was involved.  His ‘Remarkable Providences’ was first published in 1684, although he had begun work on the manuscript some years earlier, revealing his long-term interest in witchcraft: it forwards a belief in the real power of witchcraft.  His defence of the trial process and in some case of the sentences handed down has undermined his reputation but he remains a fine writer and a typical thermometer of a particular style of puritanism prevalent at the time.