RÉMI (Nicolas). - Lot 27

RÉMI (Nicolas). Dæmonolatreiæ libri tres. Frankfurt am Main: Hartmann Palthenius, 1596. - Small in-12, stiff parchment, double cold fillet framing the boards, smooth spine decorated with cold fillets, red speckled edges). Dorbon, 4028 - Caillet, 9265. First in-12 edition published one year after the original in-4. Born in Charmes, Vosges, in 1530, Nicolas Rémy (1530-1612) trained as a lawyer before rising through the ranks of the Lorraine judiciary, becoming in turn lieutenant general, public prosecutor and privy councillor to Duke Charles III. His name remains associated above all with the witch-hunt: for fifteen years, he directed hundreds of trials, sending hundreds of accused - women, men and even children - to the stake after interrogations often marked by torture. In 1595, he published "La Démonolâtrie" (Demonolatry), a treatise in which he sets out with chilling rigor the mechanisms of witchcraft, pacts with the devil, sabbats and crimes attributed to witches. He also describes the methods used to unmask them, bluntly justifying the use of violence to extract confessions. For Rémy, witchcraft is an absolute threat, and torture a necessary tool to save the souls of the accused - or at least to prevent them from doing harm. Presented as a moral and political duty, his work is also a demonstration of erudition, mixing ancient references, biblical quotations and accounts of his own judicial experiences. Although he claims to write without literary ambition, his text reveals a desire to convince, even to impose his vision of a world haunted by evil. La Démonolâtrie thus remains a terrifying testimony to the demonic obsession of his time, when justice became confused with cruelty in the name of faith. (Sources: Samantha Paquet. "La sorcellerie au XVIIe siècle: importance et évolution du phénomène de sorcellerie en France et en Angleterre à travers l'étude de deux traités de démonologie". History. 2021.) A good copy in contemporary binding. Soiling and a few stains on binding. Mottling. Some old annotations, handwritten bookplate on title.