The Sorcerer's Tale

Faith and Fraud in Tudor England

Alec Ryrie

224 pages | 15 integrated halftones | 196x129mm

978-0-19-957090-4 | Paperback | 02 September 2010

Also available as: Hardback

Price: £8.99

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The strange and previously unknown story of Gregory Wisdom - physician, magician, and consummate con-man
Takes us on a whirlwind journey through Tudor London, from the cut-throat world of early modern medicine to the ganglands of fraud and organized crime; from Kabbalistic conjurors to street-corner wizards
Lays bare the intimate connections between Tudor England's dignified public face and its rapacious underworld
Highlights the important hidden links between the disparate worlds of medicine, magic, organized crime and religion in sixteenth-century England

An earl's son, plotting murder by witchcraft; conjuring spirits to find buried treasure; a stolen coat embroidered with pure silver; crooked gaming-houses and brothels; a terrifying new disease, and the self-trained surgeon who claims he can treat it.

This is the world of Gregory Wisdom, a physician, magician, and consummate con-man at work in sixteenth-century London. In this book, Alec Ryrie uses previously unknown documents to reconstruct this extraordinary man's career. The journey takes us through the cut-throat business of early modern medicine, down to Tudor London's gangland of fraud and organized crime; from the world of Renaissance magi and Kabbalistic conjurers to street-corner wizards; and into the chaotic, exhilarating religious upheavals of the Reformation.

On the way, we learn how Tudor England's dignified public face and its rapacious underworld were intimately connected to each other. Gregory Wisdom's career is an object lesson in how to conjure up wealth and respectability from nothing in a turbulent age. And it provides a unique glimpse into a world intoxicated with new ideas, where it was impossible to know quite what to believe - or who to trust.

Readership: All those interested in the history of crime and the underworld in Shakespeare's London and in the history of magic and medicine.

The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.

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The Sorcerer's Tale

Faith and Fraud in Tudor England

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