Martin Del Rio’s Disquisitions on Magic was one of the best-known witch-hunting manuals of its age. First published at Louvain in 1599 and 1600, it was reprinted more than twenty times, as late as 1755. Its last two books tell judges how to try accused witches and guide confessors who hear them.
Del Rio (1551–1608) was born in Antwerp to a Spanish merchant family. He trained in law at Salamanca and served the Spanish crown in Brabant before joining the Jesuits in 1580. He later taught at Jesuit colleges from Graz to Salamanca. His six books run from natural magic and alchemy through demonic magic, witchcraft and divination. The historian Jan Machielsen has argued that Del Rio may never have met an accused witch, and that his demonology grew from extensive reading.
In his second book, Del Rio listed the works of magic their owners boasted of possessing: books said to be by Adam, Enoch and Abraham, a "Key" of Solomon, and lore handed down from the angel Raziel. He called the Steganographia of the German abbot Johannes Trithemius "full of danger and superstition." He condemned Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy, along with "the most pernicious of all, the fourth, added and published separately later." He named "the book of the art of the Grimoire," which "in our fathers' time" went around "teaching the calling up of the dead." And of one huge volume of sacrifices and incantations to demons, he wrote that "every copy that could be found, the inquisitors of the faith burned, most justly. If only they had got hold of the last one."
This copy of Peter Henning’s Cologne edition of 1633 is in early vellum, with the title inked on the spine. Its engraved title has eleven scenes from Exodus, showing Moses and Aaron confronting Pharaoh’s magicians and the plagues falling on Egypt. The stamps and labels record the Maryland Diocesan Library in Baltimore and St. Mark’s Library at the General Theological Seminary in New York.
DEL RIO, Martin Anton. Disquisitionum Magicarum libri sex, quibus continetur accurata curiosarum artium, et vanarum superstitionum confutatio, vtilis Theologis, Iurisconsultis, Medicis, Philologis. Auctore Martino Del-Rio Societ. Iesu Presbyt. LL. Licent et Theol. Doct. olim in Academia Graetcensi, et Salmanticensi publico S. Script. Professore. Prodit opus vltimis curis longe accuratius ac castigatius. Superiorum Permissu et Licentia. Coloniae Agrippinae: Sumptibus Petri Henningij, Anno M.DC.XXXIII [1633]. Three tomes in one volume, with divisional titles to the second and third, the second reading "Tertia cura correctior & auctior."
Physical Description: Quarto, 26 cm. [16], 1070, [2] pages, the last leaf blank. Engraved general title with eleven scenes from Exodus, chapters 7 to 11; dedication to Ernest of Bavaria, Archbishop-Elector of Cologne; prologue and chapter summaries. Text in two columns within ruled borders. Divisional titles to the second and third tomes on pages 343 and 683. Indexes to the tomes, the last ending on page 1070 with "Finis" and a printed prayer, "Oremus," asking that God's people "shun the contagions of the devil." Woodcut headpieces, tailpieces and initials.
Binding: Early vellum over boards, the title lettered by hand on the spine, "Delrio disquisit. Magicae." Endbands sewn in green thread. Paper shelf label on the spine.
Condition: Vellum soiled and darkened, with a chip at the head of the spine. Front endpapers split, torn and chipped, the free endpaper with large losses; front pastedown lifting along the edges, with a small piece of it projecting at the lower inner margin of the engraved title. The title chipped along the fore-edge margin, the engraving untouched. Text browned throughout, heavily in places, with damp staining and scattered foxing. A crease and short tear at the lower corner of page 344.
Provenance: Ex-library copy, deaccessioned by the General Theological Seminary. Early ink inscription on the front pastedown, "R. Paris," with "Ex Bibliothek" and a flourish. Pencil signature "E A Dalrymple." Violet ink stamp "Maryland Diocesan Library / Dalrymple Dept." with an ink shelfmark, partly struck through, ending "138," repeated on the spine label. Printed label of "St. Mark's Library, The General Theological Seminary, Chelsea Square, New York," with the lines "Maryland Diocesan Library / The Memorial Library of the Reverend Edwin A. Dalrymple / Whittingham Collection." Printed labels "Rare Book Room" and "This book is not to be removed from the Library." Pencil class marks and an accession number on the pastedown.
Martin Del Rio’s Disquisitions on Magic was one of the best-known witch-hunting manuals of its age. First published at Louvain in 1599 and 1600, it was reprinted more than twenty times, as late as 1755. Its last two books tell judges how to try accused witches and guide confessors who hear them.
Del Rio (1551–1608) was born in Antwerp to a Spanish merchant family. He trained in law at Salamanca and served the Spanish crown in Brabant before joining the Jesuits in 1580. He later taught at Jesuit colleges from Graz to Salamanca. His six books run from natural magic and alchemy through demonic magic, witchcraft and divination. The historian Jan Machielsen has argued that Del Rio may never have met an accused witch, and that his demonology grew from extensive reading.
In his second book, Del Rio listed the works of magic their owners boasted of possessing: books said to be by Adam, Enoch and Abraham, a "Key" of Solomon, and lore handed down from the angel Raziel. He called the Steganographia of the German abbot Johannes Trithemius "full of danger and superstition." He condemned Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy, along with "the most pernicious of all, the fourth, added and published separately later." He named "the book of the art of the Grimoire," which "in our fathers' time" went around "teaching the calling up of the dead." And of one huge volume of sacrifices and incantations to demons, he wrote that "every copy that could be found, the inquisitors of the faith burned, most justly. If only they had got hold of the last one."
This copy of Peter Henning’s Cologne edition of 1633 is in early vellum, with the title inked on the spine. Its engraved title has eleven scenes from Exodus, showing Moses and Aaron confronting Pharaoh’s magicians and the plagues falling on Egypt. The stamps and labels record the Maryland Diocesan Library in Baltimore and St. Mark’s Library at the General Theological Seminary in New York.
DEL RIO, Martin Anton. Disquisitionum Magicarum libri sex, quibus continetur accurata curiosarum artium, et vanarum superstitionum confutatio, vtilis Theologis, Iurisconsultis, Medicis, Philologis. Auctore Martino Del-Rio Societ. Iesu Presbyt. LL. Licent et Theol. Doct. olim in Academia Graetcensi, et Salmanticensi publico S. Script. Professore. Prodit opus vltimis curis longe accuratius ac castigatius. Superiorum Permissu et Licentia. Coloniae Agrippinae: Sumptibus Petri Henningij, Anno M.DC.XXXIII [1633]. Three tomes in one volume, with divisional titles to the second and third, the second reading "Tertia cura correctior & auctior."
Physical Description: Quarto, 26 cm. [16], 1070, [2] pages, the last leaf blank. Engraved general title with eleven scenes from Exodus, chapters 7 to 11; dedication to Ernest of Bavaria, Archbishop-Elector of Cologne; prologue and chapter summaries. Text in two columns within ruled borders. Divisional titles to the second and third tomes on pages 343 and 683. Indexes to the tomes, the last ending on page 1070 with "Finis" and a printed prayer, "Oremus," asking that God's people "shun the contagions of the devil." Woodcut headpieces, tailpieces and initials.
Binding: Early vellum over boards, the title lettered by hand on the spine, "Delrio disquisit. Magicae." Endbands sewn in green thread. Paper shelf label on the spine.
Condition: Vellum soiled and darkened, with a chip at the head of the spine. Front endpapers split, torn and chipped, the free endpaper with large losses; front pastedown lifting along the edges, with a small piece of it projecting at the lower inner margin of the engraved title. The title chipped along the fore-edge margin, the engraving untouched. Text browned throughout, heavily in places, with damp staining and scattered foxing. A crease and short tear at the lower corner of page 344.
Provenance: Ex-library copy, deaccessioned by the General Theological Seminary. Early ink inscription on the front pastedown, "R. Paris," with "Ex Bibliothek" and a flourish. Pencil signature "E A Dalrymple." Violet ink stamp "Maryland Diocesan Library / Dalrymple Dept." with an ink shelfmark, partly struck through, ending "138," repeated on the spine label. Printed label of "St. Mark's Library, The General Theological Seminary, Chelsea Square, New York," with the lines "Maryland Diocesan Library / The Memorial Library of the Reverend Edwin A. Dalrymple / Whittingham Collection." Printed labels "Rare Book Room" and "This book is not to be removed from the Library." Pencil class marks and an accession number on the pastedown.
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