Die Macht des Charlatans : Grete De Francesco [ First Edition ]
$450
Out of stock
Description
True first edition in dust jacket of the brilliant history of deception, quackery and duplicity, Die Macht des Charlatans by Grete De Francesco
De Francesco, Grete. De Macht Des Charlatans Mit neunundsechzig Abbildungen nach seltenen, teils unveroffentlichten Originalen. Benno Schwabe & Co Verlag : Basel. 1937. First Edition.
Translated into English as “The Power of the Charlatan”, “Die Macht des Charlatans” by Grete De Francesco is a pioneering and engaging theory and history of con artistry, swindling, and charlatanry from the middle ages through to the 19th century. A study of how and why people have fallen for various frauds, the text includes treatments on astrology and alchemy as well as some of their more notorious proponents including Cagliostro and the 16th century miracle doctor Leonard Thurneisser, as well as chapters on the use of automata and advertising for trickery. Thoroughly illustrated, the book includes reproductions of various talismans, ads, and historical artwork. As Walter Benjamin, an associate of the author, said at the time, “To write the history of the charlatan is to present the history of advertising.”
Born Margarethe Weissenstein to Jewish parents in Vienna in 1893, the author was the first female graduate from the German Academy for Politics (Deutsche Hochschule für Politik) and wrote her thesis on the rise of Italian fascism in 1931 following her marriage to an Italian engineer. De Francesco wrote for the Frankfurter Zeitung newspaper ahead of the publication of this work in 1937 before fleeing Germany. Captured by the SS in Italy and deported to Ravensbruck Concentration Camp as a political prisoner in 1944, De Francesco died there in February 1945.
8vo, 257pp + [1] index, blue cloth boards with title gilt to front face and spine. Corners and spine ends bumped. Soiling to bottom spine edge near front hinge. Back board lightly bowed. Bookblock slightly spotted. Pages clean. Pencil notes in German to final free endpaper. Very good. Includes 69 illustrations. Original pictorial dust jacket, foxed along flaps, with losses at front and upper back fore corners and spine ends. Front flap hinge partially detached along seam but fully present. Good.
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