An extraordinary and rarely available early Venetian edition in three volumes of one of the most notorious handbooks of witchcraft and demonology: Martín Antonio Del Rio’s Disquisitionum magicarum libri sex. First published in 1599, this vast Jesuit treatise became the standard manual of inquisitors and judges for over a century, ranking alongside the Malleus Maleficarum in its influence on European witch trials.
Del Rio (1551–1608), a Jesuit theologian born in Antwerp, was an adviser to the Council of Troubles (the dreaded “Tribunal of Blood”), notorious for its persecutions in the Low Countries. His Disquisitiones embodies both his humanist erudition and his implacable orthodoxy: in six books, he surveys classical sources, biblical texts, patristic authorities, and contemporary cases to define, classify, and prosecute magical practices.
While intended as a refutation of superstition and heresy, the work has long fascinated scholars and collectors for the sheer breadth of occult lore it preserves: accounts of witches’ sabbaths, spells, charms, pacts with demons, divination, astrology, necromancy, and the ambiguous realms of “natural magic.” It is, in effect, a compendium of everything the learned world feared, and could not resist cataloging.
Martín Antonio Del Rio. Disquisitionum magicarum libri sex. Venice: De Franceschi. 4to (218 × 158 mm). Vols. I–III in one. [24], 290 [but 288], [24]; [16], 248, [24]; [16], 236, [20] pp. Title pages printed in red and black with printer’s device. One folding plate present in vol. II (with minor soiling). Later half-parchment with corners, over woodcut-printed boards; handwritten spine title. Edges red. Early noble stamp and ownership notes to preliminaries. Binding rubbed, with corners worn, but structurally sound; text with some toning, occasional stains, and signs of use; folding plate with light fouling. Overall a solid and very good example of a scarce Venetian printing.
An extraordinary and rarely available early Venetian edition in three volumes of one of the most notorious handbooks of witchcraft and demonology: Martín Antonio Del Rio’s Disquisitionum magicarum libri sex. First published in 1599, this vast Jesuit treatise became the standard manual of inquisitors and judges for over a century, ranking alongside the Malleus Maleficarum in its influence on European witch trials.
Del Rio (1551–1608), a Jesuit theologian born in Antwerp, was an adviser to the Council of Troubles (the dreaded “Tribunal of Blood”), notorious for its persecutions in the Low Countries. His Disquisitiones embodies both his humanist erudition and his implacable orthodoxy: in six books, he surveys classical sources, biblical texts, patristic authorities, and contemporary cases to define, classify, and prosecute magical practices.
While intended as a refutation of superstition and heresy, the work has long fascinated scholars and collectors for the sheer breadth of occult lore it preserves: accounts of witches’ sabbaths, spells, charms, pacts with demons, divination, astrology, necromancy, and the ambiguous realms of “natural magic.” It is, in effect, a compendium of everything the learned world feared, and could not resist cataloging.
Martín Antonio Del Rio. Disquisitionum magicarum libri sex. Venice: De Franceschi. 4to (218 × 158 mm). Vols. I–III in one. [24], 290 [but 288], [24]; [16], 248, [24]; [16], 236, [20] pp. Title pages printed in red and black with printer’s device. One folding plate present in vol. II (with minor soiling). Later half-parchment with corners, over woodcut-printed boards; handwritten spine title. Edges red. Early noble stamp and ownership notes to preliminaries. Binding rubbed, with corners worn, but structurally sound; text with some toning, occasional stains, and signs of use; folding plate with light fouling. Overall a solid and very good example of a scarce Venetian printing.
