Original edition of the famous witchcraft book by Jean Bodin
of extreme rarity in old armorial and monogrammed binding.
Paris, Jacques du Puy, 1580.
From the libraries of Connay and Jean Pierre II de Montchal.
Bodin, Jean. De la Démonomanie des sorciers. To Monseigneur M. Chrestofle de Thou, Knight Lord of Coeli, first President in the Parliament Court, & Counselor to the King in his private Council.
Paris, Jacques du Puys, 1580.
In-4 of (14) ff., 255 ff. incorrectly numbered 252. Handwritten ex libris on the title. Bound in granite calf, large gilt arms stamped in the center, spine with raised bands decorated with gilt stars, decorated edges, red speckled edges. Armorial binding of the 17th century.
225 x 168 mm.
Rare original edition of this famous work by Jean Bodin which “enjoyed great popularity at the time and was translated into Latin as early as 1581“.
Brunet, I, 1025; Caillet, I, 182; Tchemerzine, I, 720; Obadia, French Bibliography of Witchcraft, n°842.
Often reprinted and translated into Latin as early as 1581, it quickly became at the time a “vade mecum for judges in witchcraft trials” (F. Renz, Jean Bodin, p. 73) and today constitutes one of the best documents on the witch trials of the 16th century.
“True first edition of the epoch-making treatise on demonology and witchcraft of the French lawyer Jean Bodin (1529-1596)”.
“I think contrary to Bodin” says Montaigne (Essays, II, 32) and “In the end and in conscience, I would have rather prescribed them (the sorcerers) hellebore than hemlock” (Essays, III, 11).
Montaigne appreciated Bodin’s lucidity and tolerance in political matters and was, according to Villey, strongly influenced by the author of the ‘Six Books of the Republic’ although he disavowed him in his belief in witchcraft.
For Bodin, the incredible operations of the sorcerers are the work of demons. Each part of nature thus becomes the place of activity of a demon. If there is thus an “association of spirits with men” (Bodin), then the oddities of the world and the sometimes extreme variety of human spirits can be explained by a “diabolic art” creator of “wonders“.
“A work full of singularities and oddities. In one chapter he speaks of a character still alive, who had a familiar demon like Socrates, a spirit who made himself known to this character when he was 37 years old, and who since then directed his steps and actions: if he did a good deed, the spirit pulled his right ear, and his left ear if he committed a bad one. It is assumed that the character was Bodin himself“. (Bulletin Morgand et Fatout, n°4635).
“At the very moment that Bodin is writing this terrifying book – because he is terrified -, some are beginning to question the validity of the witch trials […]. In the last part of his book, Bodin attacks the Dutch physician Jan Weyer, who suggested that some aberrant behaviors that were explained by the intervention of demons might have been merely a mental pathology” (Crahay/Isaac/Lenger).
The last copy of this original in contemporary vellum not armorial passed on the public market described as follows: “Strong foxing in quires R-T, stain in the upper margin of the first quires, some spots. Small stains on the vellum, crack on the top of the spine” was sold for €13,500 by Sotheby’s Paris on November 27, 2003, 20 years ago.
Very rare example preserved in its old armorial and monogrammed binding, here with the arms of Jean-Paul II de Montchal, knight, lord of Noyen, de Grisy, Nephew of the archbishop of Toulouse, Charles de Montchal, he was appointed counselor to the parliament of Paris in 1680.
Jean-Pierre II de Montchal, son of Jean-Pierre I, lord of la Grange, master of requests, and of Elisabeth du Pré, his second wife, born in 1652, married Renée Hénin on September 9, 1683, and died on September 7, 1698, leaving only daughters.
Guigard, T. 2, p. 364, wrongly attributes this tool to Jean-Pierre I who died in 1653.
