Harry Potter fans are due to be given new insight into the “rich history” of JK Rowling’s wizarding world in a new series of four short books exploring the origins of magic.

Rowling’s Pottermore Publishing will release four ebooks next month, “bitesize” non-fiction that the publisher said will explore “the traditional folklore and magic at the heart of the Harry Potter stories”. Each is themed on a subject on the Hogwarts curriculum, with A Journey Through Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts, A Journey Through Potions and Herbology, A Journey Through Divination and Astronomy, and A Journey Through Care of Magical Creatures all on the way.

According to Pottermore, the books are inspired by the audiobook of Harry Potter – A History of Magic, the companion book to the British Library exhibition on the same subject.

“It seems part of human nature to want to believe in the unbelievable: from the bestiaries and cabinets of curiosities of the medieval period onwards,” said Pottermore. “We think that truth and myth are easily distinguished today, but magical creatures and the stories around them continue to fascinate us – and they are as central to the Harry Potter stories as Harry, Hermione and Ron.”

Describing its Potions and Herbology ebook, it said that “potions have been made for thousands of years”, with plants “important components of medicines as much as myth-making and magic”. The publisher added: “A source of danger as well as a means of overcoming obstacles, herbology was a subject which had a major bearing on Harry’s key decisions and mistakes in the wizarding world.”

The four ebook shorts will also include notes, manuscript pages and sketches, Pottermore promised, and are “a chance to absorb the colourful characters and curious incidents of the real history of magic in a more compact form.”