My Favorite Rare Book (at NCSU...pre-1700)

contributed by Beth DeBold.

One of my favorite texts in the pre-1700 imprints here at NCSU was De la Demonomanie des Sorciers by Jean Bodin. I enjoyed all of the books with which I worked for different reasons, but beyond aesthetically pleasing covers and woodcuts, I fell in love with several items for their content alone. Bodin’s influential work on demonology and witchcraft was one such.

A philosopher and politician, Bodin was active in the upper echelons of society in late sixteenth century France. At this time, there was a great deal of religious tension across Europe following the Protestant Reformation—although Bodin was nominally Catholic, he made it clear in many of his writings that he did not ascribe to one particular faith. Instead, his writings are filled with non-denominational vagaries, a trend that papal officials found suspicious.

De la Demonomanie des Sorciers, or On the Demon-mania of Witches, was first published in 1580. Although slightly mysterious regarding many of his beliefs, Bodin did believe deeply in the powers of the Devil, as well as in the prevalence of men and women to practice witchcraft through his evil influence. This treatise discusses magic and witchcraft in depth, as well as how to identify and torture practitioners, whom Bodin viewed as a growing threat to the French state. In effect, this is a casebook on the prosecution of witches for the legal minds of the time. Divided into four parts, Bodin’s work concludes with an additional chapter refuting the writings of Johann Weyer, a Dutch demonologist who disagreed with Bodin’s approach.

Ironically, Jean Bodin’s interest in and knowledge of witchcraft, combined with his less-than-enthusiastic commitment to Catholicism, caused him to come under suspicion of witchcraft himself. In June of 1587, authorities ordered his home searched, and he was saved further indignity (and possible accusation) only when several influential friends intervened and vouched for him. Nevertheless, his criticism of Catholicism earned many of his works a place on the Church’s Index of Prohibited Books, including De la Demonomanie des Sorciers in 1594.

NCSU’s copy of this work was published in 1598 in Paris. This leads me to wonder about the exact circumstances of its printing. Already banned by the Catholic Church, and written by a man suspected of consorting with the Devil (in spite of his apparent eagerness to burn and torture witches), it’s possible that Bodin’s actions unintentionally helped assure its place on the bestseller list. Of course, witchcraft has always been a compelling topic for the public.

English speaking readers can borrow a translation from Duke via TRLN , or purchase a copy through Amazon , while those able to read French are welcome to come to the D. H. Hill Jr. Library to read from our original.

Sources :

Wier, William. (2002). 1593: the Bible of Demonology and Witchcraft : Jean Bodin : De la Demonomanie des Sorciers. Retrieved from http://www.wierus.com/catalog/bodin/

Jean Bodin. (2005). In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/bodin/