A Vision: An Explanation of Life Founded upon the Writings of Giraldus and upon Certain Doctrines Attributed to Kusta Ben Luka

1925

Brasch PR5904 V53

London: Privately Printed for Subscribers only by T. Werner Laurie

A Vision is a curious philosophical, historical, and astrological work. As the subtitle suggests, Yeats claims as his sources Qusta ibn Luqa (820–912) and one ‘Giraldus,’ whose book was printed in Cracow in 1594 and whose portrait faces the title page. Yeats’ Giraldus is a ‘mask,’ a fiction, whose philosophy and identity is in keeping with Renaissance neoplatonists, and A Vision amalgamates ideas Yeats collected from neoplatonism, astrology, occult literature, and Eastern religion. Six hundred copies of this edition were numbered and signed; this copy is no. 437.