In 1784 lawyer and diplomat Henri Decremps published La Magie Blanche Dévoilée – “White Magic Revealed”. It was an exposure of the methods used by conjurors, one of the most successful artists of the day, Giuseppe Pinetti, in particular. Decremps wanted to expose the fraud of performers who profited from their audience’s ignorance rather than train his readers to perform tricks themselves. His content is based more around his theories rather than on knowing how it was done first hand. Decremps went on to publish a supplement and several other books on magic that laid down some important principles. This translation of Decremp’s first book has some omissions and many additions, and perhaps set the style for magic books of the late 18th century by offering a description of a trick followed by an explanation, without illustrations. One of the publishers, Thomas Denton, also published the English translation of Pinetti’s response to Decremps. He was executed in 1789 for possessing coin counterfeiting equipment.