INFERNAL DICTIONARY
Book Details + Condition: Abracax House, 2015-16. Deluxe Edition. Complete two-volume hardcover set, in slipcase. Quartos (11-3/4” x 9”). Pagination: 1-400pp, Vol. II: 401-766pp. In full black bonded leather with silver gilt lettering and decoration in silver. Includes black, silver-stamped slipcase. Ribbon bookmarks, pictorial endpapers, and illustrated throughout in b&w and color plates. This Abracax House "Deluxe Edition" was released in two different bindings: one (bonded) leather, and the other imitation leather. This set has the superior bonded leather binding. The number line on the copyright page ends in 2, perhaps indicating that this is the second printing of the Abracax House Deluxe Edition (but we are unsure, as all other similar copies we’ve seen have the same “2”).
This edition was the first full translation into English of the "Dictionnaire Infernal" by Jacques Auguste Simon Collin de Plancy (1793-1887). The book is an encyclopedic offering of all hellish things: black magick, demonology, and superstition. De Plancy followed the tradition of grimoires (such as "The Lesser Key of Solomon") of naming the various demons and itemizing the legions and hierarchies to which they belong, as well as drawing in other occult figures from folklore, mythology and theology. The "Dictionnaire Infernal" was originally published in 1818 and went through a number of revisions and editions between 1818 and its final revision of 1863. The final version was not only the most comprehensive, but also included for the first time the now-famous series of portraits of demons by M.L. Breton, which later became synonymous with the work. This set includes a full English translation of the final edition of de Plancy's work with added notes, along with digitally enhanced reproductions of the more than 500 original woodcuts that appeared in it. It also includes 82 pages of full-color plates (of the demonic and other figures), the Introductions to the 1818, 1825, 1844 & 1853 editions, the Endorsement and Preface to the 1863 edition, English-French cross-reference of subject names and titles, and a new Index.
In like-new condition; we only opened the original plastic wrapping to confirm the copyright dates and photograph the books - it has been otherwise stored in the sealed plastic.
