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Libra Esoterica

The Golden Bough

In Twelve Volumes

Also known as A general system of chemical knowledge, and its application to the phenomena of nature and art; The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion; The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion

by James George Frazer, Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Antoine-François de Fourcroy & William Nicholson

  • First published:
  • 19th century
  • Languages: Chinese, English, French, German, Italian
  • Content type: FictionPrimary source

"The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion" by James George Frazer is a comparative study first published in 1890. Frazer explores mythology and religion across cultures, examining fertility rites, human sacrifice, dying gods, and sacred kingship. His controversial thesis traces humanity's intellectual evolution from magic through religion to science, centered on ancient fertility cults and seasonal rituals. Drawing from the priest-kings of Lake Nemi to global mythologies, this sweeping work scandalized Victorian Britain and profoundly influenced twentieth-century literature and thought. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Provenance

Why this book is in the catalog

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

  • Ritual magic and grimoires

    Controlled discovery queries from internet-archive, online-books-page, openlibrary-historical, project-gutenberg, and wikisource matched “Magic” and “magic”. Retained metadata contains “Magic” in the alternative title, “Magic” in the description, “Magic” in the subject metadata, and 3 additional metadata match(es).

    • “Magic”· via Internet Archive
    • “Magic”· via The Online Books Page
    • “Magic”· via Open Library
    • “magic”· via Project Gutenberg
    • “Magic”· via English Wikisource
    • “Magic”· in alternative title
  • Alchemy and Hermeticism

    Controlled discovery queries from national-library-of-scotland matched “alchemy”. Retained metadata contains “Alchemy” in the subject metadata.

    • “alchemy”· via National Library of Scotland
    • “Alchemy”· in subject
  • Controlled discovery queries from internet-archive, online-books-page, openlibrary, openlibrary-historical, and project-gutenberg matched “Folklore”, “folklore”, “Mythology”, and 3 additional term(s). Retained metadata contains “Mythology” in the description, “Folklore” in the subject metadata, “Mythology” in the subject metadata, and 1 additional metadata match(es).

    • “Folklore”· via Internet Archive
    • “Mythology”· via Internet Archive
    • “Superstition”· via Internet Archive
    • “Mythology”· via The Online Books Page
    • “Superstition”· via The Online Books Page
    • “Mythology”· via Open Library
  • Controlled discovery queries from internet-archive, openlibrary-historical, and project-gutenberg matched “Gods”, “paganism”, and “Rites and ceremonies”. Retained metadata contains “Cults” in the description, “Gods” in the description, “Gods” in the subject metadata, and 1 additional metadata match(es).

    • “Rites and ceremonies”· via Internet Archive
    • “Gods”· via Open Library
    • “Rites and ceremonies”· via Open Library
    • “paganism”· via Project Gutenberg
    • “Cults”· in description
    • “Gods”· in description

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

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Editions

Open Library reports 374 editions; 13 cataloged here.

The golden bough : a study in magic and religion

HathiTrust catalog record

1913———Public view

a study in comparative religion

Internet Archive institutional pre-1900 scan

1890-01-01T00:00:00ZLondon : MacmillanEnglish—Public digitized item

a study in comparative religion

Internet Archive institutional pre-1900 scan

1890-01-01T00:00:00ZLondon ; New York : Macmillan and CoEnglish—Public digitized item

Subjects

60 subject headings

Identifiers & provenance

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

Identifiers

Project Gutenberg
Wikisource
  • 7800
National Library of Scotland
  • 99116516455704341
Open Library work (alias)

Cataloged from

Found via

Cataloging notes

  • Contributing institution: Cornell University Library
  • Contributing institution: Internet Archive
  • Contributing institution: Princeton Theological Seminary Library
  • Contributing institution: Robarts - University of Toronto
  • Contributing institution: Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh
  • Digitization sponsor: Jisc and Wellcome Library
  • Digitization sponsor: MSN
  • 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.
  • Editors: Frazer, Lady, 1854 or
  • Internet Archive institutional collection: americana
  • Internet Archive institutional collection: europeanlibraries; medicalheritagelibrary
  • Open Library reports 374 editions; this snapshot catalogs one representative edition and preserves work-level ISBN, date, and publisher aggregates.
  • Original print publication date and source edition are absent from Project Gutenberg metadata.
  • Scanner: Kirtas APT 2400
  • Scanner: scribe11
  • Scanner: scribe19
  • Scanner: scribe4.nj.archive.org
  • Scanner: scribe9.nj.archive.org
  • Scanner: station15.cebu.archive.org
  • Scanner: ttscribe1.hongkong.archive.org
  • Source-listed Library of Congress call number(s): BL310 .F72
  • Source-listed Library of Congress call number(s): BL310 .F72 1894
  • Source-listed Library of Congress call number(s): BL310 .F72 1900
  • Source-listed Library of Congress call number(s): BL310 .F72 1915
  • Source-listed Library of Congress call number(s): BL310 .F72 1922
  • Source-reported rights: <a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/" rel="ugc nofollow">This work is available under the Creative Commons, Public Domain Mark</a>
  • Source-reported rights: This work is available under the Creative Commons, Public Domain Mark
  • The Online Books Page bibliographic note: abridged edition
  • The Online Books Page bibliographic note: abridged edition: New York: Macmillan, 1922
  • The Online Books Page bibliographic note: first edition reprint, 2 volumes; New York and London: Macmillan, 1894
  • The Online Books Page bibliographic note: second edition, 3 volumes; London and New York: Macmillan, 1900
  • The Online Books Page bibliographic note: third edition, 12 volumes; Macmillan, c1906-1915
  • Wikidata edition/translation work relation followed for author, date, language, subject, and identifier enrichment.
  • Wikidata instance type: literary work; version, edition or translation
  • Wikidata item description: 1922 abridged one volume edition of the work by J. G. Frazer
Catalog id
openlibrary-work:OL1159648W
Edition coverage
Multi source partial
Retrieved