AEGIDIUS CARLERII. Sporta fragmentorum. Brussels:... - Lot 38 - Ader

AEGIDIUS CARLERII. Sporta fragmentorum. Brussels: [The Brothers of the Common Life], 1478. - In-folio, 285 x 208: (114 ff. of 122); car. goth., 38 lines. Havana sowskin on bevelled wooden ais, dishes decorated with a cold-stamped decoration composed of fillets in the frame and en x au centre, as well as a floral motif on the corners, spandrels and clasps in chased brass, spine ribbed (P. F. Eenhass, bookbinder in Brussels). Pellechet, 3303. - Annales de la typographie néerlandaise au XVe siècle, Volume 2, No. 398. - Hain, *4513. First sought-after edition of this collection of consultations on cases of conscience given by the doctor and professor of theology Aegidius Carlerii, or Gilles Carlier (1390-1472), collected by his contemporaries . Two volumes appeared in 1478 and 1479; we have here only the first one. It is an important work, constituting a historical source of the first order, especially with regard to witchcraft; this is what Professor Henri Platelle reminds us in his article Les Consultations de Gilles Carlier, doyen of the Cambrai chapter on matters of witchcraft: "The matters of witchcraft occupy only a secondary place in this collection, but they provide astonishing information on the magical practices actually in use and on the mentalities which oppose them. We see magic at the service of love (bewitchment, love talisman), at the service of greed (discovery of treasures and various swindles), at the service of curiosity (interrogations to be made to demons and ghosts); then comes the intimate trade with the demon (the Sabbath and all its folklore: Gilles Carlier was consulted on the famous Arras voodoo affair in 1460). Gilles Carlier, a moderate demonologist, is situated at the junction of two eras. One can thus see the immense interest of these "crumbs" gathered in his "basket" " (Henri Platelle, Les Consultations de Gilles Carlier, doyen du chapitre de Cambrai sur des affaires de sorlège, in: