1945 Centenary Anniversary Edtn ISIS UNVEILED By Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

1945 Centenary Anniversary Edition 2nd Printing

ISIS UNVEILED
By Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

KEY DETAILS
Condition: Very Good
Format: Hardcover, Octavo (Standard) (8vo 6 × 9 in 152 × 229 mm )
Note: Binding/size selection follows standard bibliographic conventions and is approximate; exact measurements may vary.
Published By: The Theosophy Company, Los Angeles, California, 1945
Language: English
Provenance: United Lodge of Theosophists - A centre for the study of the original Theosophy of H. P. Blavatsky and William Q Judge.
Collation: Two volumes bound in one.; Volume I: preliminary matter xlv + 628 pp.; Volume II: preliminary matter iv + 640 pp., followed by 68 pp. index (708 pp. total).; Portrait frontispiece; diagrams and illustrations; two folding cosmological plates; supplemental index.
Dust Jacket: None, as issued, No Jacket
SKU: BTETM0000639
Shipping Info: Approximate Package Dimensions H: 12.5, L: 30, W: 25 (Units: cm), W: 2Kg
Tracked Shipping, Insurance Coverage as per Customer Request

DESCRIPTION
ISIS Unveiled
A Master-Key To The Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology An attractive early printing of H. P. Blavatsky’s Isis Unveiled, one of the foundational works of modern Theosophy and a major nineteenth-century contribution to Western esoteric literature. This is the 1945 second printing of the Centenary Anniversary Edition, first issued by The Theosophy Company in 1931 to mark the centenary of Blavatsky’s birth. The edition reproduces both volumes of the original 1877 New York edition photographically and binds them together in a single substantial volume: Volume I – Science and Volume II – Theology. The original 1931 Centenary title page is retained as part of the facsimile reproduction; the Publisher’s Preface in this copy is dated August 1945, identifying the present impression as the second printing. Of particular interest is the book’s association with the London Theosophical community. The title page bears a small Theosophy Co. Ltd., 62 Queen’s Gardens, London W.2 label, and the volume is accompanied by a period leaflet from the United Lodge of Theosophists, Robert Crosbie House, 62 Queen’s Gardens, London. The associated ephemera has been retained with the book.

PROVENANCE
United Lodge of Theosophists - A centre for the study of the original Theosophy of H. P. Blavatsky and William Q Judge.

CONDITION, COLLATION & COPY NOTES
Edition: Centenary Anniversary Edition; second printing, 1945. First printing of this photographic facsimile edition issued in 1931. Association: Theosophy Co. Ltd. / United Lodge of Theosophists, 62 Queen’s Gardens, London W.2. Publisher/bookseller label to title page and United Lodge of Theosophists leaflet retained with the volume. Publisher’s original red cloth boards, ruled in black, with gilt titles and gilt pictorial device to the spine, now protected in a removable clear Mylar sleeve. Binding remains presentable with light age-related rubbing and wear to the extremities, including minor wear at the spine ends and corners. Internally clean and well preserved overall, with light general age-toning consistent with the edition. Portrait frontispiece of H. P. Blavatsky present. Text and diagrams remain clear and legible. The important folding cosmological plate in Volume II, between pp. 264–265, is present, opening to display the Hindu and Chaldeo-Jewish cosmological diagrams discussed in the accompanying text. The folding plate appears complete and sound from examination, with the expected original folds. The title page bears the small label of Theosophy Co. Ltd., 62 Queen’s Gardens, London W.2, and a United Lodge of Theosophists leaflet from Robert Crosbie House at the same address is retained with the book. A sound and appealing copy of the second printing of this important facsimile edition, with particularly appropriate London Theosophical association. Please see Photos as part of condition report.

REFERENCES
OCLC 24657985 (Centenary Anniversary Edition) Bibliotheek Theosofie Nederland, THE-1-1-ISIS-16 (1931 Centenary issue)

SYNOPSIS
First published in two volumes in New York in 1877, Isis Unveiled was Blavatsky’s first major book and established many of the themes that would become central to the Theosophical movement. Volume I – Science examines the claims and limitations of nineteenth-century materialist science while surveying mesmerism, Spiritualism, psychical phenomena, magic, ancient philosophy, Hermetic traditions and occult conceptions of nature. Blavatsky argues that phenomena dismissed by contemporary scientific orthodoxy may point towards laws and dimensions of nature understood by ancient philosophical and religious traditions. Volume II – Theology turns principally to religion and comparative theology. Blavatsky examines Christianity alongside Hindu, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Kabbalistic, Egyptian and other traditions, arguing that apparently separate religious systems preserve elements of an older universal wisdom or philosophical tradition. Throughout the work she attempts to reconcile religion, philosophy and science within a broader esoteric interpretation of human history and spiritual knowledge. Although controversial from its first appearance, Isis Unveiled became a foundational text of modern Theosophy and remains an important source for the study of nineteenth-century occultism, comparative religion and the development of modern Western esotericism. This 1945 second printing of the Centenary Anniversary Edition reproduces the text of the original 1877 edition photographically, preserving its typography, illustrations and diagrams while bringing both original volumes together under one binding.

AUTHOR BIO
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831–1891) was a Russian-born author, occultist and co-founder, with Henry Steel Olcott and William Quan Judge, of the Theosophical Society in New York in 1875. She became the principal early exponent of modern Theosophy and one of the most influential figures in the nineteenth-century revival of Western esotericism. Her writings sought to identify an ancient underlying wisdom shared by the world’s religious and philosophical traditions, drawing extensively upon Hinduism, Buddhism, Neoplatonism, Hermeticism, Kabbalah and contemporary debates concerning science, Spiritualism and psychical phenomena. Her two major works, Isis Unveiled (1877) and The Secret Doctrine (1888), exercised a lasting influence upon later occult, esoteric and alternative religious movements and played an important role in the Western reception of Indian religious and philosophical ideas.