[DEL RIO, MARTINO]. Disquisitionum Magicarum Libri Sex; Quibus Continetur Accurata Curiosarum Artium, et Vanarum Superstitionum Confutatio Utilis Theologis, Iuris Consultis, Medicis, Philologis. Coloniæ [Koln/ Cologne] Agrippinæ: Sumptibus Petri Henningij [Peter Henning], Anno M.D.C. LVII. [1657].
FIFTH EDITION. Leather-bound; hardcover; thick quarto (21 x 17 x 8 cm); pp. [16], 1181, [33]. Erroneous pagination. Signatures collating: π⁸ A-⁷K⁴. Latin text in double columns. Bound in contemporary vellum over boards with yapp edges; title handwritten in manuscript on spine; initial and terminal blanks; engraved title with eleven vignettes from Exodus; half-title; woodcut initials; printed footnotes; rear indexes. Edition statement from half title which reads: 'Disquisitionum magicarum libri sex Martini Del-Rio. Editio V. in Germania.' From verso of half-title: 'Methodus. Universum opus Disquisitionum in tres tomos partior, & singulis tomis duos libros assigno, quibus continentur, quæ subjungo. Lib. I: De magia generatim, & de naturali, artificali, & præstigiatrice agitur. Lib. II: De magia Dæmoniaca & eius efficacitare. Lib. III: De maleficio & vana observatione. Lib. IV: De prophetia, divinatione & coniectatione. Lib. V: De Iudicis officio & ordine iudiciario in hoc crimine. Lib. VI: De officio confessarij, ac remedijs licitis & illicitis.' Provenance: I. Janet Fontaine, 29 Juin 1915; ink MS ownership inscription. II. Dr. Alan Gauld (1932-2024), parapsychologist and historian of psychical research, formerly of the University of Nottingham; his ex libris label and ownership inscription. Condition: GOOD. Collated complete. Binding tight and secure, the covers somewhat marked and soiled. Various toning throughout. Small graduating worm trail to lower-left from ⁶T3-⁷A1 with some small losses of letters.
Notes: Regarded as the most important and comprehensive Counter-Reformation compendium of magic, witchcraft and the supernatural. Jesuit scholar Martin Del Rio’s Disquisitionum Magicarum was first published at Louvain in 1599-1600, and went through a number of editions, until 1755. The work is "a careful synthesis of witchcraft that drew connections with mathematics, astrology, alchemy, and other disciplines, and argued that the surge in witchcraft was rooted in the spread of "heresy" during the Reformation" (Newberry). "In many ways [this work is] the most complete of all the works on witchcraft and as renowned as the Malleus Maleficarum" (Robbins). The text is written from a counter-reformation viewpoint, and covers superstition, idolatry and devil worship, amulets, incantations, spells, alchemy, exorcism, prophecy, divination, and provides a list of satanic authors (including Bacon, Paracelsus, and George Ripley). It became the standard guide for priests and ecclesiastical judges, both Catholic and Protestant, throughout the 17th century, particularly during the height of the witch-hunts in France and the German states in the first decades of the seventeenth century. [USTC: 2100266; Witch Craze, Roper, 2004; The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America, 2013; Coumont D45.21; see The Newberry, Religious Change and Print 1450-1700; Palau 268283; Robbins (1959), p 121].
