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www. blackletter-press.com

Thank You!

Hardcover, 17,6 x 24,6 cm
480 Pages, bound in high quality moss green cloth with black endpapers.
Cover design by Andrei Bouzikov, embossed in gold and light sage.

This edition is strictly limited to a quantity of 250 hand numbered copies.

Please note: The book and the art print are not printed yet, therefore the images you see in the perks are just a mockup!

Natural Magick was first published in 1558. Giambattista della Porta was a magus, or a natural magician, who searched nature for similarities that would serve to build a broad template of forced understanding of seeming likenesses, looking for the great connector in the exceptional and the unusual, the stuff outside of the formerly Aristotlean world. 

Porta writes in the first chapter, defining the word „magic“: „Magic took her name and original [sic] from Persia… In the Persian language, a Magician is nothing else but one that expounds and studies divine things; and it is the general name of wise-men in that country… Magic was begun in Persia by Zoroastres“. Therefore it is not a book of ceremonial magic, spells or any religious topics but an encyclopedic work of natural wonders, a gold-mine of information and clever wishfulness written at a time when science was still in its infancy. Magic is described as a specific science of natural objects.

Natural Magic concerns itself with a variety of subjects della Porta had investigated such as magic, alchemy, optics, geometry, cryptography, magnetism, agriculture, the art of memory, munitions, and many other topics, all grouped together and refined, distilled, into a compendium of natural knowledge. 

While some of della Portas described Experiments on living animals and Humans might seem curious and quite cruel to the modern reader, his researches in optics were visionary. He gave the world the first published description of the convex lens and the camera obscura. Though he did not invent these, his work is perfecting and describing them, and their inclusion in Natural Magick, contributed to the dissemination of this knowledge.

The first edition of Natural Magic (1558) ended up on the spanish Index of forbidden Books due to Porta’s naturalistic approach to witchcraft and necromantic arts. A second version in 1589 was purged of the infamous - and one of the few passed on - recipes for a witches unguent. Della Porta speculates in this banned chapter, that the witches flight and orgiastic encounters with demons and the devil had a natural explanation. Hallucinogenic plants were used to create the flying ointment - a material substance with occult, but non-demonic properties. 

This Black Letter Press Publication is based on the expanded edition from 1658 but includes the complete chapter „Lamiarum Unguenta“ („Witches Unguent“) in latin and english translation in the Appendix.

With this new edition of "Natural Magick", I want to revive this remarkable writing whilst also delivering as high a quality of a book as I can. 
Furthermore I wanna pay the involved artists a fair amount for their dedicated work.

If the campaign is successful and the book sells well, I wanna push the small publishing house I've founded this year. My work is devoted to the revive of old books about Occult Science, Philosophy, Magick, Poetry and more.

THE PUBLISHER

My name is Alice, I was born in Hannover, Germany in 1983. I am the founder of Black Letter Press and I love beautiful books.
After finishing school, I learned printing technics, book binding and media design. I worked for several advertising agencies and publishings houses but always spend a lot of time designing merchandise for bands and tour posters. Through my passion for heavy metal and rock music, the world of the occult, witchcraft and obscure and was always present and fascinating to me. Together with my husband and baby daughter, I live in Turin, Italy since 2016.

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COVER DESIGN
by Andrei Bouzikov 

Andrei Bouzikov was born in Vitebsk Belarus in 1979. He was taught art by his parents at an early age. After receiving an award for Excellence in Visual Arts from high school, he decided to become an artist. Andrei's art reflects his childhood and the surroundings he grew up in. Fascinated with his native country's past, he creates haunted and surreal images of war, religion, broken dreams and an uncertain future. At a young age he would spend most of his time in Belarasian forests, researching for artifacts from the past. Andrei immigrated to the United States in 1996 at the age 16. In 2000 he attended the Academy of Art University, where with the help of the Universitys exellent instructors he polished his painting and drawing skills. In 2006 Andrei left school to persue a career as a freelance illustrator. In 2016, Andrei and his Irish wife moved back to Europe.

Web: www.andreiboo.blogspot.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/andreibouzikov
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AndreiVBouzikov

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ILLUSTRATIONS
by Lea Pieper

Lea is a 26 year old Tattoo artist from Dortmund. After traveling through Israel and India, earning a living with promotional jobs and band merchandising, she decided to become a tattoo artist. Her drawing style and tattoo-art reflects her musical Doom and Heavy Metal background and are inspired by her passion with symbolism and spiritualism. These days she works at NUIT Tätowierungen in Dortmund.

Instagram: www.instagram.com/weedfinder.general

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VIDEO EDITING 
by Claire Winkler:  www.clairewinkler.de​

OTHER WAYS TO HELP

Help me spread the word by sharing this project on your facebook timeline and in your social media channels.
Email, text, or call your magick-book enthusiast friends and let them know about this new, limited edition of Natural Magick.
Like, follow, share and invite friends to the BLACK LETTER PRESS Facebook or Instagram page

www.facebook.com/blackletterpress
www.instagram.com/black.letter.press
www.blackletter-press.com 

Thank you for your time, your interest in this book, and for your support of this Indiegogo campaign.

Thanks to plato.stanford.edu/entries/della-porta and ​longstreet.typepad.com/thesciencebookstore