A KEY INFLUENCE ON COTTON MATHER DURING THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS: IMPORTANT 1682 FIRST EDITION OF A TRYAL OF WITCHES, POSSIBLY "THE FIRST EXAMPLE OF EXPERT TESTIMONY BY A PHYSICIAN IN REFERENCE TO A PSYCHIATRIC ISSUE"

(WITCHCRAFT) (BROWNE, Thomas) (HALE, Sir Matthew). A Tryal of Witches, at the Assizes Held at Bury St. Edmonds for the County of Suffolk; on the Tenth day of March, 1664. Before Sir Matthew Hale Kt. then Lord Chief Baron of His Majesties Court of Exchequer. Taken by a Person then Attending the Court. London: Printed for William Shrewsbery, 1682. 12mo, 19th-century three-quarter red morocco gilt, marbled boards and endpapers. $15,000.

First edition of the principal account of one of the key witchcraft trials of the 17th century, a psychiatric and legal cornerstone so influential upon Cotton Mather's thinking that "the Salem witch-hunts might not have taken place if there had not been a trial at Bury St. Edmonds." Attractively bound by Carss & Co., Glasgow.

According to the charges listed in this work, Rose Cullender and Amy Drury, two elderly widows, had caused children to become suddenly and violently ill, to vomit nails and pins, and to see mice, ducks, and flies invisible to others. Additionally, a toad was alleged to have run out of the bed of the young mother of one of their victims. When thrown into the fire, the toad "made a great and horrible Noise, and after a space there was a flashing in the Fire like Gun-powder, making a noise like the discharge of a Pistol, and thereupon the Toad was no more seen nor heard" (6). The pair was ultimately hanged, though neither confessed to being a witch.

"The case…strongly influenced the most notable of America's witchcraft prosecutions, the Salem trials of 1692. Indeed, the Salem witch-hunts might not have taken place if there had not been a trial at Bury St. Edmonds: the events at Salem notoriously imitated those at Bury. Cotton Mather in his Wonders of the Invisible World included a large number of excerpts and interpretations of the Bury trial in order to justify what happened at Salem" (Bunn & Geis 7). Sir Thomas Browne, a noted physician to whom A Tryal of Witches has been attributed, played a principal role as the prosecution's medical expert. In his earlier writings, specifically Religio Medici (1642), Browne commented often upon the relation of anatomy to psychology, the brain to the soul, and of the role of dreams. He asserted during the Bury St. Edmonds assize that "the persons were Bewitched… [since] the Devil in such cases did work upon the Bodies of Men and Women… to stir up, and excite such humours super-abounding in their Bodies to a great excess, whereby he did in an extraordinary manner Afflict them with such Distempers as their Bodies were most subject to…." (41). "Browne's testimony in support of the reality of witchcraft may be the first documented example of expert testimony by a physician in reference to a psychiatric issue. Browne's testimony also played a role in the Salem witch trials, as Cotton Mather quoted it to allay the doubts of those who challenged the reality of witchcraft" (Norman Library 966). Wing 2240. Later owner signature on front flyleaf.

A few spots to title page; a couple of leaves closely cropped at top margin, just touching running header. A near-fine copy. Rare.