Scarce early 19th century work on the nativity of Napoleon

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This work, a P. J. Swift's 'Destiny of Europe' from 1812, came up on ebay a week or so ago and I couldn't resist bidding since I collect 19th century astrological literature and I had never even heard of this before. In the event it sold to me for a surprisingly low price of ?21, I presume because it is just of pamphlet length at 32 pages. Does anyone here know anything about it or its author?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0220541671

I don't have my copy of Gardner to hand so I don't know if he listed it, but I just did check COPAC and OCLC and there appears to be only one major library copy in the UK, at Glasgow University, and none in the US. If true, this would place it in the unusual position of being absent from the British Library, which has almost everything ever printed on astrology.

http://www.copac.ac.uk/wzgw?id=08051270 ... rsn=1&rn=1

Failing any helpful further information being forthcoming, I'll attempt to assess it myself when it gets here. At this stage I have no particular expectations with regard to the quality of the astrology or writing, and presume it a mere curio, but it might turn out to be good!

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Hate to burst your bubble, but it IS in the British Library. It's badly catalogued, but if you search under "nativity" and "Napoleon" you'll find it. Shelfmark 10163.ee.37.(4.). (A lot of early nineteenth century stuff in the BL is surreally catalogued.)

Swift is a pseudonym for John Corfield. I know little about him apart from the fact he didn't have many friends. He published The Urania, a good read in the BL as it's full of Corfield's annotations pointing out how he made all the letters in it up and because no-one wanted to read it he lost a lot of money on this and the booklet you have. Corfield is cited in Howe.

It IS rare though, almost scarily so.

Kim
www.kimfarnell.co.uk

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Thanks so much for these details, Kim!

The British Library is scarily akin to the Great Library of Alexandria in a number of cases where it appears to hold the only or one of only two copies listed on COPAC and OCLC combined.

This situation reminds me however of my pre-existing perception that it would be in the interest of literary preservation for astrological organisations such as the AFA, the Astrological Lodge, the A.A., NCGR, the Heart Center and Kepler College to openly publish their complete holdings of astrological literature on the web. This would then give a clearer idea of which items need special protection because of being for example the only known copy outside the British Library in existence.

Significant private collectors such as my friend in London who professes to possess the entire runs of Modern Astrology, Astrology Quarterly, the A.A. Journal and, almost incredibly, India's long-running 'Astrological Magazine', could then have their holdings added to the register too.

The basic idea would be to establish some protection for the rarer titles by raising awareness of their potential endangerment in the event of an accident at the British Library (not that I can imagine it would be likely to become a target for terrorism, mind you). It's as well to note what happened in the National Library of Scotland recently with thousands of priceless items being damaged in an accidental flood.

Another advantage of web publication is that it would encourage individuals who happen to have rare astrological books in their estates but know little about them to ensure that they are well looked after or sold or donated to an appropriately secure collection.

Until such a register exists and is well-established, I'll certainly be left wondering how many other copies of 'Raphael's Sanctuary of the Astral Art' are extant in complete condition, in view of the fact that the British Library copy is stated to lack the frontispiece pull-out illustration and the internal diagrams.

Philip