Details

LOT 2150

Stuart Period Skin-Covered Witchcraft Book About a Penitent Woman Seduced by a Magician that Made her to Become a Witch

1613 A.D.

7 5/8 x 6 1/4 in. (516 grams, 19.5 x 16 cm).

Michaelis (Sebastian) The Admirable Historie of the Possession and Conversion of a Penitent Woman - Seduced by a Magician that Made her to Become a Witch, and the Princes Sorcerers in the Country of Province Who Was Brought to S. Baume to Be Exorcised, in the Yeere 1610, in the Moneth of November... published in English by William Aspley in 1613; the cover with strange symbols scratched into the skin cover, the inside front cover annotated in ink with various names followed by witchcraft(?) calculations: 'Thomas Jouery = 6 = 6 / 2 = 1 =', Holder = 6 = 6', Haleok = 2222' Ginkins = 7', 'Cols - 4 - 2 =', Rogers = 1', John Yodes(?) his book - 1728' and others, with some annotations inside the book; frontice page and pages to B1 absent, ending at page 414; the cover detached, binding and some pages loose, the remainder of the inside fine with 'hidden' inked text(?).

Provenance

Found within a library of antiquarian books.
Property of a Huddersfield, UK, gentleman.

Footnotes

Sébastien Michaëlis was a prominent Dominican inquisitor in the Avignon region of France in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, where he was involved in a number of witch trials and executions. In 1611, he was called to investigate a group of nuns at an Aix-en-Provence convent who were reportedly possessed by the devil. Several of the nuns asserted that a local priest was the cause of their possession, accusing him of everything from devil worship to sexual perversion to cannibalism. Under torture, the priest confessed to having signed a pact with the Devil, and was executed. Michaëlis wrote up his experiences this book called Histoire admirable de la possession d'une penitente, published in 1611; the English translation, shown here, followed soon after in 1613. Michaëlis's text is known for its extensive classification and hierarchy of demons named by the nuns in their confessions. While many of the named demons are not discussed elsewhere, his classification schema was highly influential upon other demonologies and witchcraft treatises.