Skip to content
Libra Esoterica

A new system, or, An analysis of ancient mythology

wherein an attempt is made to divest tradition of fable, and to reduce the truth to its original purity ...

by Jacob Bryant, James Basire, William Blake, John Adams & John Adams Library BRL

  • First published:
  • 18th century
  • Language: English
  • Content type: ManuscriptPrimary source
Read free

Description

Description from Internet Archive (opens in a new tab)

A New System or an Analysis of Ancient Mythology is a pioneering work that seeks to decode the origins of mythological figures as distorted remnants of early monotheism and sacred geography. Bryant argues that many gods and heroes were originally eponymous places or natural phenomena misinterpreted as deities over time. This monumental work laid the foundation for later comparative mythologists like Max Müller and remains a landmark in the study of ancient symbolic language.

Provenance

Why this book is in the catalog

Included because retained bibliographic metadata links this work to Ancient religions, animism, and ritual and Mythology, folklore, and sacred legends.

  • Mythology, folklore, and sacred legends

    Controlled discovery queries from internet-archive and openlibrary-historical matched “Mythology”. Retained metadata contains “Mythology” in the title, “mythological” in the description, “Mythology” in the description, and 2 additional metadata match(es).

    • “Mythology”· via Internet Archive
    • “Mythology”· via Open Library
    • “Mythology”· in title
    • “mythological”· in description
    • “Mythology”· in description
    • “Mythology”· in subject
  • Ancient religions, animism, and ritual

    Retained metadata contains “deities” in the description, “Gods” in the description, and “deities” in the subject metadata.

    • “deities”· in description
    • “Gods”· in description
    • “deities”· in subject

Membership records how this book met the catalog’s discovery criteria — relevance to a tradition, not a judgment of the book’s claims.

Read & download

Free, public copies reported by our sources. Links open the source directly.

Not yet in passage search

Pro research answers quote indexed passages. Ask the library to index this book’s public text.

marks a direct file download. Rights vary by country; each source states its own terms.

Buy or borrow

No ISBN on record, so the Amazon link searches by title and author. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. WorldCat shows libraries near you that hold a copy.

Editions

5 editions cataloged here.

Internet Archive unrestricted pre-1900 PDF scan

1775-01-01T00:00:00Z—English—Public digitized item

wherein an attempt is made to divest tradition of fable ; and to reduce the truth to its original purity

Internet Archive unrestricted pre-1900 PDF scan

1807-01-01T00:00:00ZLondon : Printed for J. Walker, W.J. and J. RichardsonEnglish—Public digitized item

wherein an attempt is made to divest tradition of fable; and to reduce the truth to its original purity

Internet Archive unrestricted pre-1900 PDF scan

1775-01-01T00:00:00ZLondon : Printed for T. Payne ..., P. Elmsly ... B. White ... and J. Walter ...English—Public digitized item

Subjects

36 subject headings

Identifiers & provenance

How this record was assembled, and the authority identifiers it carries.

Cataloging notes

  • Contributing institution: Getty Research Institute
  • Contributing institution: John Adams Library at the Boston Public Library
  • Contributing institution: Oxford University
  • Digitization sponsor: Google
  • Digitization sponsor: Sloan Foundation
  • Discovery required Internet Archive search metadata to report a PDF format; the exact direct-file URL is added only after the item's file listing confirms an unrestricted PDF filename.
  • Open Library reports 2 editions; this snapshot catalogs one representative edition and preserves work-level ISBN, date, and publisher aggregates.
  • Open Library reports 3 editions; this snapshot catalogs one representative edition and preserves work-level ISBN, date, and publisher aggregates.
  • Scanner: google
  • Scanner: Internet Archive HTML5 Uploader 1.7.0
  • Scanner: scribe1
  • Scanner: scribe1.santamonica.archive.org
Catalog id
openlibrary-work:OL3186999W
Edition coverage
Multi source partial
Retrieved