This two-volume work is the result of a seven-month field work in Egypt, during which Alfred Butler was a private tutor to Prince Tawfik from 1880 to 1881. Butler visited most of the old churches and monasteries in and around Cairo and traveled to the Wadi al-Natrun, the monasteries of the Red Sea and a number of churches in Upper Egypt. His descriptions are invaluable and sometimes are the only record of what we know about a certain object or church "It is an important document for its time and an early and influential example of unprejudiced scholarly interest for the culture of the Coptic...

This two-volume work is the result of a seven-month field work in Egypt, during which Alfred Butler was a private tutor to Prince Tawfik from 1880 to 1881. Butler visited most of the old churches and monasteries in and around Cairo and traveled to the Wadi al-Natrun, the monasteries of the Red Sea and a number of churches in Upper Egypt. His descriptions are invaluable and sometimes are the only record of what we know about a certain object or church "It is an important document for its time and an early and influential example of unprejudiced scholarly interest for the culture of the Coptic...

The late Victorian period witnessed the remarkable revival of magical practice and belief. Butler examines the individuals, institutions and literature associated with this revival and demonstrates how Victorian occultism provided an alternative to the tightening camps of science and religion in a social environment that nurtured magical beliefs.