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Author: Frazer, J.G.
Title: The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion
Place Published: London
Publisher:Macmillan and Co.
Date Published: 1922-27
Description:

12 volumes. (8vo) 21.8x14.5 cm (8¼x5¾"), finely bound by the Harcourt bindery in full green morocco bordered in gilt with floral cornerpieces, tooled and lettered on spines in gilt, raised bands, top edges gilt, gilt dentelles, marbled endpapers. Third Edition.

The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (retitled The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion in its second edition) is a wide-ranging, comparative study of mythology and religion, written by the Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer. The Golden Bough was first published in two volumes in 1890; in three volumes in 1900; and in twelve volumes in the third edition, published 1906-15. Frazer based his thesis on the pre-Roman priest-king at the fane of Nemi, who was ritually murdered by his successor. "When I first put pen to paper to write The Golden Bough I had no conception of the magnitude of the voyage on which I was embarking; I thought only to explain a single rule of an ancient Italian priesthood." (Aftermath, p. vi). Armorial bookplates of Frederick S. Dick.

Frazer's thesis was developed in relation to J. M. W. Turner's painting of The Golden Bough, a sacred grove where a certain tree grew day and night. It was a transfigured landscape in a dream-like vision of the woodland lake of Nemi, "Diana's Mirror", where religious ceremonies and the "fulfillment of vows" of priests and kings were held.

Spines sunned with rubbing at ends and along joints, a few scuffs; leaves mildly toned; about near fine.