It contains a small section intended to show how the public was fooled by charlatans, which is considered the first published material on illusionary or stage magic.

He set himself to prove that the belief in witchcraft and magic was rejected by reason and by religion and that spiritualistic manifestations were wilful impostures or illusions due to mental disturbance in the observers.

Of Cornelius Agrippa and Johann Weyer, author of De Præstigiis Demonum (Basle, 1566), whose views he adopted, he spoke with respect.

The Discoverie of Witchcraft and The First Part of Clever and Pleasant Inventions by Jean Prevost, both published in 1584, are considered the seminal works of magic.

The chapter on magic tricks in Scot's Discoverie was later plagiarised heavily; it was the basis of The Art of Juggling (1612) by S. R., and Hocus Pocus Junior (1634).

[5][6] Scot's early writings constituted a substantial portion (in some cases, nearly all) of the text in English-language stage magic books of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Gabriel Harvey, in his Pierce's Supererogation (1593),[8] wrote: Scotte's discoovery of Witchcraft dismasketh sundry egregious impostures, and in certaine principall chapters, and speciall passages, hitteth the nayle on the head with a witnesse; howsoever I could have wished he had either dealt somewhat more curteously with Monsieur Bondine [i.e. Bodin], or confuted him somewhat more effectually.William Perkins sought to refute Scot, and was joined by the powerful James VI of Scotland in his Dæmonologie (1597), referring to the opinions of Scot as "damnable".

John Rainolds in Censura Librorum Apocryphorum (1611), Richard Bernard in Guide to Grand Jurymen (1627), Joseph Glanvill in Philosophical Considerations touching Witches and Witchcraft (1666), and Meric Casaubon in Credulity and Uncredulity (1668) continued the attack on Scot's position.

In 1651 the book was twice reissued in London in quarto by Richard Cotes; the two issues differ slightly in the imprint on the title page.