DEMONOLATRY: DRAWN FROM THE CAPITAL TRIALS OF 900 PERSONS, MORE OR LESS, WHO WITHIN THE LAST FIFTEEN YEARS HAVE IN LORRAINE PAID THE PENALTY OF DEATH FOR THE CRIME OF WITCHCRAFT
Book Details + Condition: John Rodker (London, UK). First, Limited and Numbered Edition, 1930. Hardcover. 188 pages. This particular copy has not been numbered, but is part of a limited printing of 1275. Volume by Nicolas Remy, a notorious French magistrate who boasted of having personally condemned and burned hundreds of witches. It was first printed in 1595 and was known as one of the earliest major works on demonology and witchcraft. It was the leading witchcraft handbook of its day; it defined the black arts and their practitioners, and offered civil and religious authorities directives for persecution of the accused and punishment of the condemned.
Subtitled "Drawn from the capital trials of 900 persons, more or less, who within the last fifteen years have in Lorraine paid the penalty of death for the crime of witchcraft". It was translated from the Latin by E.A. Ashwin and edited, and with an Introduction, by English clergyman and occult scholar Montague Summers, author of Malleus Maleficarum.
PROVENANCE: From the massive occult collection of Dr. Alan Gauld (1932–2024), distinguished British psychologist, parapsychologist, and historian of psychical research based at the University of Nottingham. His library included significant works on mediumship, hypnotism, and the founders of psychical research, often marked with his ownership inscriptions or ex libris labels. He authored many respected works, including The Founders of Psychical Research (1968), Mediumship and Survival (1982), and A History of Hypnotism (1992). Firm binding; wear to boards, with darkening/staining present; bumped corners; chafed spine ends; two ex libris stickers and owner names (including Gauld's) to front endpapers; interior is clean and free of markings, save Gauld's meticulous penciled notes to rear free endpapers and inside rear board (which we kept, due to the book's provenance). All books are carefully packed, and shipped in boxes.
