- Ritual magic and grimoires
- Alchemy and Hermeticism
- Mythology, folklore, and sacred legends
- Ancient religions, animism, and ritual
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.
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
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.
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Editions
Open Library reports 374 editions; 13 cataloged here.
| Edition | Date | Publisher | Language | ISBN | Access | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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 | 1890-01-01T00:00:00Z | London : Macmillan | English | — | Public digitized item | |
a study in comparative religion Internet Archive institutional pre-1900 scan | 1890-01-01T00:00:00Z | London ; New York : Macmillan and Co | English | — | Public digitized item |
Subjects
- History
- Fiction
- Folklore
- Religion
- Philosophy
- Magic
- Rites and ceremonies
- Mythology
- Superstition
- General
- Fiction, general
- Magie
- Anthropology
- Chemistry
- Sociology
- Kings and rulers
- Electronic books
- Classic Literature
- Mythologie
- Magia
- ritual
- Superstitions
- SOCIAL SCIENCE
- Long Now Manual for Civilization
- open_syllabus_project
- Comparative Religion
- Mythos
- History of Religion
- Folklore & Mythology
- Non-Classifiable
- Mitología
- Mythology in literature
- Primitive Religion
- Mythology (literary genre)
- Taboo
- Religion, Primitive
- Religion (discipline)
- Ancient Magic
- Comparative Mythology
- Godsdienst
Identifiers & provenance
How this record was assembled, and the authority identifiers it carries.
Identifiers
- ISBN-13
- ISBN-10
- LCCN
- OCLC
- Open Library work
- Project Gutenberg
- Internet Archive
- HathiTrust
- Wikisource
- 7800
- National Library of Scotland
- 99116516455704341
- Open Library work (alias)
Cataloged from
- HathiTrust Digital Library006811212 (opens in a new tab)
- Internet Archiveb21904455 (opens in a new tab)
- Internet Archivecu31924021569086 (opens in a new tab)
- Internet Archivegoldenboughabrid00fraz (opens in a new tab)
- Internet Archivegoldenboughstud02frazuoft (opens in a new tab)
- Internet Archivegoldenboughstudy0002fraz (opens in a new tab)
- Internet Archivegoldenboughstudy01fraz (opens in a new tab)
- Internet Archivegoldenboughstudy01frazuoft (opens in a new tab)
- Internet Archivegoldenboughstudy02fraz (opens in a new tab)
- Internet Archivegoldenboughstudy03frazuoft (opens in a new tab)
- National Library of Scotland99116516455704341 (opens in a new tab)
- The Online Books Pageolbp17360 (opens in a new tab)
- The Online Books Pageolbp17361 (opens in a new tab)
- The Online Books Pageolbp51169 (opens in a new tab)
- The Online Books Pageolbp51170 (opens in a new tab)
- The Online Books Pageolbp51181 (opens in a new tab)
- Open LibraryOL1159648W (opens in a new tab)
- Open LibraryOL16458358W (opens in a new tab)
- Project Gutenberg3623 (opens in a new tab)
- WikidataQ131597795 (opens in a new tab)
- WikidataQ651283 (opens in a new tab)
- English Wikisource7800 (opens in a new tab)
Found via
- “Rites and ceremonies” in Internet Archive
- “Folklore” in Internet Archive
- “Mythology” in Internet Archive
- “Superstition” in Internet Archive
- “Magic” in Internet Archive
- “alchemy” in National Library of Scotland
- “Mythology” in The Online Books Page
- “Superstition” in The Online Books Page
- “Magic” in The Online Books Page
- “Mythology” in Open Library
- “Superstition” in Open Library
- “Gods” in Open Library
- “Rites and ceremonies” in Open Library
- “Folklore” in Open Library
- “Mythology” in Open Library
- “Superstition” in Open Library
- “Magic” in Open Library
- “paganism” in Project Gutenberg
- “folklore” in Project Gutenberg
- “mythology” in Project Gutenberg
- “superstition” in Project Gutenberg
- “magic” in Project Gutenberg
- “Magic” in English Wikisource
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







