A fragile and unsophisticated copy of this rare American divination book.
Whilst the telling of fortunes by moles had precedent dating back to at least the Georgian period, perhaps inspired by the fashion for beauty patches of “mouches”, the title of this book is somewhat misleading, as the contents covers only “Oneirocritica”, or the interpretation of dreams. The authorship is attributed to “Madam Connoisseur, first of the Seven Wise Mistresses of Rome”. This is a reference to a seventeenth century chap book, first published in London in 1663, riffing on the Medieval convention of the “Seven Sages” romances. The term oneirocritica, used to introduce the alphabetical glossary of dream symbols, is the title of an Ancient Greek treatise by Artemidorus.
OCLC finds 2 copies only copies at University of Connecticut & Harvard (who attribute the circa date of 1850). The former gives the same pagination as our copy, suggesting that though irregular, this was as issued.
There is also a c.1830 edition published by R. Marsh, held at Cornell, Clements, LCoP, AAS. Rare Book Hub finds one copy only, at C. F. Libbie in 1919. It is described as New York 1830, so is likely the R. Marsh edition.
