GRILLANDUS (Paulus). Tractatus de hereticis: et Sortilegiis - Lot 146

GRILLANDUS (Paulus). Tractatus de hereticis: et Sortilegiis [...]. Item de Questionibus & Tortura. Lyon, Jacques Giunta, 1545. In-8 gothic, antique limp vellum, remnants of laces (Modern binding). "A work of excessive rarity and one of the most important from the point of view of demonology" (Dorbon, n°1989). This Gothic edition, printed on two columns, is not cited by Caillet and was not included in the Guaïta catalog. The title is adorned with a vignette of the author teaching students, set in a woodcut frame. Printer's mark on verso of last leaf. After the Malleus Maleficarum, this treatise by Grillandus, a witch hunter in Rome and southern Italy, was the most influential on the subject in the first half of the 16th century. Widely quoted, its role was pre-eminent in the resurgence of belief in witchcraft. Here, the author tackles a vast field: demonology, pacts with the devil, possession, the Sabbath, metamorphoses and evil spells. The work abounds in anecdotes reminiscent of folk tales, which were to be repeated in later writings and contributed greatly to the development of the mythology of witchcraft. Early handwritten bookplate on title: Ex Bibliothecae Ludovici Perrin.