BEKKER, Balthasar. - De betoverde weereld, zynde een grondig ondersoek van't gemeen gevoelen aangaande de geesten, deselver aart en vermogen, bewind en bedrijf; als ook't gene de menschen door derselver kraght en gemeenschap doen. In vier boeken ondernomen.

Amsterdam, Daniel van den Dalen, 1691 - 1693. 4 volumes in 1. 4to. Later green calf. With printer's woodcut device on titlepages and large woodcut depicting the Oldenburg Horn (without the portrait as often). First edition. - The impact of Bekker's book, The Bewitched World, was a seminal work in the undermining of superstition, an early and powerful blow against the authority of the Bible, a significant instrument for the weakening of the Church's hold on men's beliefs, and a primary contributor to the liberation of thought across northern Europe. It caused a major scandal and in 1692 Bekker was removed from his office in Amsterdam by the synod of Alkmaar, because of heterodoxy. Together with Spinoza, Bekker is now known as one of the most important Dutch precursors of the Enlightenment.- (Age-browned).

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