First English translation, first printing. xxvi, 254pp. Blue cloth-covered boards with gilt decoration and lettering. Chocolate-coloured endpapers. 8vo. Cloth is quite heavily rubbed around edges and joints, scuffed and rounded at corners and spine ends, some mild marks and moderately sunned over spine. Text block edges darkened and spotted. Both hinges cracked. Small label from the Librairie des Sciences Occultes, Amsterdam on the front paste down. Some spotting on first and last few leaves. Previous owner's details, dated 1879, inked on the title page. Else internally neat and clean.
The Oera Linda Book is a manuscript written in imitated Old Frisian, purporting to cover historical, mythological, and religious themes from distant history. Controversial when it first came to light in the late 19th century, it was soon widely regarded as a hoax. Controversy over the text revived in the context of Nazi Occultism and it is still sometimes referenced in modern esoteric and Atlantis literature.
