PEUCER (Gaspar)Livre Rare Book
2 résultats
1584FDC-27Anvers, Heudrik Connix, 1584, gd in-4 de 6 ffnch-653 pp.-12 ff de table, vélin souple, dos usé, plats fripés, page de titre salie.
1575GEJ-14Romae (Rome), In Aedibus Populi Romani, 1575. [24], 262, [2] pp. In-4°. Book in Latin. The work is adorned with a woodcut printer’s device on the title page, fine ornamental initials, and an extensive, enlarged index preceding the main text. Old handwriten title letering to spine. Full original vellum binding and endpapers. XXth century bookplate with the initials J.B to front pastedown. Some early shelf-mark on first blank leaf and annotaions on the last pastedown. Foxing, worholes and some discolorations. Otherwise good and complete copy. This volume represents the important and rare second edition of De strigimagarum, daemonumque mirandis (“On the Marvels of Witch-Magicians and Demons”), a landmark early modern treatise on witchcraft, demonology, and inquisitorial procedure. First published in Rome in 1521 by Antonio Blado, the text was reissued in this substantially revised edition more than fifty years later. As noted on the title page, this 1575 printing was meticulously corrected and purged of the countless typographical errors that plagued the earlier publication. The author, Silvestro Mazzolini da Prierio (ca. 1456–1527), known as Prierias, was a distinguished Dominican theologian, inquisitor, and Master of the Sacred Palace under Pope Leo X. Famously remembered as one of the earliest Catholic theologians to publicly challenge Martin Luther, Prierias skillfully combined scholastic theology, canon law, and his extensive personal inquisitorial experience to address the contemporary socio-religious crisis of witchcraft. The treatise is organized into three distinct books. The first explores the theoretical, theological, and philosophical foundations of demonology, examining the nature of the soul, angels, and demons, alongside the limits of their influence on the physical world. The second book focuses directly on the witches themselves (strigimagae), providing a detailed contemporary account of diabolical pacts, harmful magic (maleficium), nocturnal flight, and the reality of the witches' Sabbath. Historically, Prierias's work is of paramount importance due to its radical reinterpretation of the medieval Canon Episcopi. While that traditional authority dismissed the nocturnal journeys of women as mere demonic illusions, Prierias argued that early modern witchcraft had evolved into a far more dangerous threat. In his view, the witch was not merely suffering from delusions, but was actively guilty of heresy, superstition, apostasy, and deliberate maleficium. This pivotal intellectual shift effectively bridged older canon-law precedents with the increasingly aggressive sixteenth-century prosecution of witchcraft. The third book shifts entirely to a juridical framework, treating witchcraft strictly as a form of heresy. It serves as a practical manual for magistrates and inquisitors, offering concrete guidance on investigating accusations, evaluating evidence, conducting formal trials, and determining punishments. This pragmatic approach is explicitly signaled in the title: una cum praxi exactissima, et ratione formandi processus contra ipsas (“together with a most exact practice and method for conducting proceedings against them”). While developing its arguments within a strict Dominican and Thomistic framework, the work belongs to the same influential tradition of judicial demonology as the Malleus Maleficarum. Ultimately, De strigimagarum stands as a crucial transition point in European history, mapping the evolution from late-medieval theological theory to the highly systemic, institutionalized judicial demonology that fueled the great witch trials of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This 1575 edition remains an indispensable primary source for the study of Renaissance demonology and early modern jurisprudence. Bibliography: USTC 841748; OCLC 79459438; Folger Shakespeare Library, BF1520 .M2; Robbins Collection, University of California, Berkeley, BX1713 .M39 1575; Caillet, Caillet 8974; Graesse V, p. 442; Bibliotheca Magica 833; Michael Tavuzzi, Prierias: The Life and Works of Silvestro Mazzolini da Prierio, 1456–1527, Durham & London, 1997. Provenance: Old Ex libris with initials J.B. - (library ?) or Private Collection (?).
