A Briefe and Pleasaunt Treatise, Entituled, Natural and Artificiall Conclusions
The Text of 1581, with Illustrations

Thomas Hill was a translator and author who lived in the Sixteenth Century. He wrote on many subjects and this book is perhaps the one for which his name is remembered; for within these pages, amongst a collection of strange experiments and ideas, is to be found the firts known publication of magic tricks in English.

It had been believed that a book by Riginald Scot published in 1584 was the first, but the research of the late Trevor H. Hall, an academic and magician, proved otherwise.

This long neglected and overlooked text by Thomas Hill is now available. The original spelling is used from the text of 1581 and the original illustrations are reproduced within the text.