Cesare della Riviera

The Magical World of the Heroes

Web edition, version 1.0, 9 October 2026

14 parts · 95,796 words · about 6 hr 57 min to read

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The Title Page and Introduction and Translator’s Note and Dedication to the Most Serene Carlo Emanuele are free to read. The rest is for Club members: create a free account before January 1, 2027 and confirm your email, and you are a Charter Member, with every part, for good. Join the Club.

Cesare della Riviera’s Il Mondo Magico de gli Heroi was printed in Milan by Pietro Martire Locarni in 1605, “newly reprinted, and by the same Author corrected and enlarged,” with a table of the notable matters and a table of the writers cited. It treats what the true natural magic may be, and how the philosophers’ stone, “sole instrument of such a science,” may be fashioned.

The edition
Cesare della Riviera, Il Mondo Magico de gli Heroi. Milan: Pietro Martire Locarni, 1605.
The text
The first published translation into English, made by B. C. P. Statema principally from the Milanese edition of 1605. This web edition is set from the translator’s finished master of the book: the 1605 text with its dedication, sonnet, letter to the readers, tables, errata and approbation, and the translator’s Introduction, Translator’s Note, Glossary (Appendix A) and essay (Appendix B).
Rights
Della Riviera’s Italian text is in the public domain. The translation, the Introduction, the notes and the appendices are the translator’s own.
Copyright
Translation © 2026 B. C. P. Statema. The Thinking Press, Kenosha, Wisconsin. All rights reserved.

Contents

  1. The Title PageFree to readIl Mondo Magico de gli Heroi1 min
  2. IntroductionFree to read57 min
  3. Translator’s NoteFree to read8 min
  4. Dedication to the Most Serene Carlo EmanueleFree to read2 min
  5. Commendatory SonnetMembers1 min
  6. The Author to the ReadersMembers4 min
  7. Table of the Notable MattersMembers22 min
  8. Table of the Authors CitedMembers1 min
  9. ErrataMembers1 min
  10. Approbation of the WorkMembers1 min
  11. Book OneMembers2 hr 1 min
  12. Book TwoMembers2 hr 4 min
  13. Appendix A: GlossaryMembers34 min
  14. Appendix B: The Hero WithinMembers43 min

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Revisions

  • 1.0, 9 October 2026. First publication on the web: the whole book, from the translator’s finished master.