1970 Muller Edition
DEMONOLATRY
A scarce and desirable 1970 Frederick Muller facsimile of the celebrated 1930 John Rodker edition of Demonolatry, Nicolas Rémy’s notorious early-modern treatise on witchcraft, demons and judicial persecution in the Duchy of Lorraine.
Translated by E. A. Ashwin and edited, with introduction and notes, by the Rev. Montague Summers, this English edition presents Rémy’s Daemonolatreiae libri tres, first published in Latin at Lyon in 1595. Drawn, according to its title-page tradition, from the capital trials of some 900 persons who had “paid the penalty of death for the crime of witchcraft,” the work stands alongside the Malleus Maleficarum as one of the most infamous texts in the literature of European witch-hunting.
Rémy records and systematises accounts of demonic pact, sabbat gatherings, maleficium, familiars, incubi and succubi, shape-shifting devils, black masses and confessions extracted from accused witches. Grim, credulous and historically revealing, Demonolatry remains an important source for the study of demonology, witchcraft belief, inquisitorial mentality and the machinery of early-modern persecution.
This Muller edition is especially attractive to collectors as a large-format hardback facsimile of the limited Rodker printing, preserving the Montague Summers apparatus and the austere presentation of the original English edition.
By Nicholas Remy
Format: Hardcover, quarto (4to 9 1⁄2 × 12 in 241 × 305 mm )
Note: Binding/size selection follows standard bibliographic conventions and is approximate; exact measurements may vary.
Language: English
Published By: Frederick Muller Ltd, London
ISBN: 9780584109085
Condition Report:
Dust Jacket: Yes, Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
Very Good - Facsimile reprint of the 1930 John Rodker edition, in dust jacket and protective cellophane. Dust jacket with some browning, most noticeably to the spine, and light wear to extremities. Some bumping to head and tail of spine. Dust jacket price-clipped. Previous owner’s bookplate and bookseller’s label to front free endpaper. Some browning to rear endpaper. Binding sound and contents clean overall. A handsome copy of a key occult and witchcraft text in its uncommon dust jacket.
Collation: pp. 188
Please see Photos as part of condition report.
Author Bio: Nicolas Rémy, also known by the Latinised form Remigius, was a French magistrate, jurist and public official in the Duchy of Lorraine. He is chiefly remembered for Daemonolatreiae libri tres, published in 1595, a work in which he claimed extensive experience of witchcraft prosecutions and the execution of hundreds of accused witches.
Rémy’s demonological thinking shows the influence of Jean Bodin and other continental authorities on witchcraft. His work helped to shape later witch-hunting literature and circulated widely in early-modern Europe, appearing in several editions and translations. To modern readers, it is both a disturbing document of persecution and a revealing example of the legal, theological and imaginative structures that sustained belief in diabolical witchcraft.
Synopsis: Daemonolatreiae libri tres is arranged as a comprehensive argument for the reality of witchcraft and demonic intervention. Rémy gathers examples from classical, biblical, legal and contemporary sources, combining learned citation with accounts said to derive from the Lorraine trials.
The work discusses the nature of demons, the Devil’s appearances to human beings, pacts with Satan, the witches’ sabbat, harmful magic, sexual relations between demons and humans, transformations, apparitions, blasphemous rites, poisons, charms and the supposed marks and evidences of witchcraft. It is written not as folklore but as a prosecutorial and theological handbook, intended to justify the punishment of those accused.
Although Rémy claimed to draw upon judicial cases, many of the original records cannot now be checked against his account. The book is therefore best read both as a primary document in the history of demonological thought and as a cautionary witness to the culture of fear, authority and violence surrounding witch trials in early-modern Europe.
An important English edition of one of the major continental witchcraft texts, with the added interest of Montague Summers’ editorial involvement and the collectability of the 1970 Muller facsimile of the Rodker edition.
SKU: BTETM0001250
Shipping Info: Approximate Package Dimensions H: 12.5, L: 30, W: 25 (Units: cm), W: 2Kg
Tracked Shipping, Insurance Coverage as per Customer Request
1970 Muller Edition
DEMONOLATRY
A scarce and desirable 1970 Frederick Muller facsimile of the celebrated 1930 John Rodker edition of Demonolatry, Nicolas Rémy’s notorious early-modern treatise on witchcraft, demons and judicial persecution in the Duchy of Lorraine.
Translated by E. A. Ashwin and edited, with introduction and notes, by the Rev. Montague Summers, this English edition presents Rémy’s Daemonolatreiae libri tres, first published in Latin at Lyon in 1595. Drawn, according to its title-page tradition, from the capital trials of some 900 persons who had “paid the penalty of death for the crime of witchcraft,” the work stands alongside the Malleus Maleficarum as one of the most infamous texts in the literature of European witch-hunting.
Rémy records and systematises accounts of demonic pact, sabbat gatherings, maleficium, familiars, incubi and succubi, shape-shifting devils, black masses and confessions extracted from accused witches. Grim, credulous and historically revealing, Demonolatry remains an important source for the study of demonology, witchcraft belief, inquisitorial mentality and the machinery of early-modern persecution.
This Muller edition is especially attractive to collectors as a large-format hardback facsimile of the limited Rodker printing, preserving the Montague Summers apparatus and the austere presentation of the original English edition.
By Nicholas Remy
Format: Hardcover, quarto (4to 9 1⁄2 × 12 in 241 × 305 mm )
Note: Binding/size selection follows standard bibliographic conventions and is approximate; exact measurements may vary.
Language: English
Published By: Frederick Muller Ltd, London
ISBN: 9780584109085
Condition Report:
Dust Jacket: Yes, Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
Very Good - Facsimile reprint of the 1930 John Rodker edition, in dust jacket and protective cellophane. Dust jacket with some browning, most noticeably to the spine, and light wear to extremities. Some bumping to head and tail of spine. Dust jacket price-clipped. Previous owner’s bookplate and bookseller’s label to front free endpaper. Some browning to rear endpaper. Binding sound and contents clean overall. A handsome copy of a key occult and witchcraft text in its uncommon dust jacket.
Collation: pp. 188
Please see Photos as part of condition report.
Author Bio: Nicolas Rémy, also known by the Latinised form Remigius, was a French magistrate, jurist and public official in the Duchy of Lorraine. He is chiefly remembered for Daemonolatreiae libri tres, published in 1595, a work in which he claimed extensive experience of witchcraft prosecutions and the execution of hundreds of accused witches.
Rémy’s demonological thinking shows the influence of Jean Bodin and other continental authorities on witchcraft. His work helped to shape later witch-hunting literature and circulated widely in early-modern Europe, appearing in several editions and translations. To modern readers, it is both a disturbing document of persecution and a revealing example of the legal, theological and imaginative structures that sustained belief in diabolical witchcraft.
Synopsis: Daemonolatreiae libri tres is arranged as a comprehensive argument for the reality of witchcraft and demonic intervention. Rémy gathers examples from classical, biblical, legal and contemporary sources, combining learned citation with accounts said to derive from the Lorraine trials.
The work discusses the nature of demons, the Devil’s appearances to human beings, pacts with Satan, the witches’ sabbat, harmful magic, sexual relations between demons and humans, transformations, apparitions, blasphemous rites, poisons, charms and the supposed marks and evidences of witchcraft. It is written not as folklore but as a prosecutorial and theological handbook, intended to justify the punishment of those accused.
Although Rémy claimed to draw upon judicial cases, many of the original records cannot now be checked against his account. The book is therefore best read both as a primary document in the history of demonological thought and as a cautionary witness to the culture of fear, authority and violence surrounding witch trials in early-modern Europe.
An important English edition of one of the major continental witchcraft texts, with the added interest of Montague Summers’ editorial involvement and the collectability of the 1970 Muller facsimile of the Rodker edition.
SKU: BTETM0001250
Shipping Info: Approximate Package Dimensions H: 12.5, L: 30, W: 25 (Units: cm), W: 2Kg
Tracked Shipping, Insurance Coverage as per Customer Request
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