Discours, et histoires des spectres, visions et apparitions des esprits, anges, démons, et âmes, se monstrans visibles aux hommes

FIRST EDITION thus, two parts in one, [xxviii], 976, [40]pp, unusually signature ⁵S1 notation inscribed by a contempory collator, rubricated title with wood-engraved printer’s device, contemporary coloured in seaweed green, divisional title, Mannerist wood-engraved headers, footers and vignettes in places throughout, colophon and errata leaves, one or two manuscript marginal glosses by an early reader, generally a well-margined and clean copy, occasionally lightly toned, later 17th century French calf over boards, spine gilt, hinges cracked, small loss to spine head, ffeps with 17th/18th c French manuscript annotations in two different hands, including a short biography of the author, 4to, Paris: Chez Nicolas Buon, 1605.

The poet and demonologist La Loyer’s highly influential and important work on ghosts, visions, demons, witches, and transformations. Originally published under the title IIII liures des spectres ou apparitions et visions d’esprits (Angers 1586), this 1605 ‘second edition’ is the first expanded edition and the first to be published under this title.

In Discours Loyer discusses at length the question of the return of the souls of the dead. He also considers in detail the raising of demons, necromancy, the distinguishing of evil spirits from Angels, the souls of the dead, the use of charms and the practice of exorcism.

The work is divided into eight books:

The first book deals with specters, apparitions, and spirits; the second with the physics of Le Loyer’s time, the illusions to which the senses are prone, wonders, and the elixirs and metamorphosis of sorceries and of philters; the third book establishes the degrees, grades, and honors of spirits, gives a résumé of the history of Philinnion and of Polycrites, and recounts diverse adventures with specters and demons; the fourth book gives many examples of spectral appearances, of the speech of persons possessed of demons, of the countries and dwelling-places of these specters and demons, and of marvelous portents; the fifth treats the science of the soul, of its origin, nature, its state after death, and of haunting ghosts; the sixth division is entirely taken up with the apparition of souls, and shows how the happy do not return to earth, but only those whose souls are burning in purgatory; in the seventh book the case of the Witch of Endor and the evocation of the soul of Samuel are dealt with, as is evocation in general and the methods practiced by wizards and sorcerers in this science; and the last book gives some account of exorcism, fumigations, prayers, and other methods of casting out devils, and the usual means employed by exorcists to destroy these.

Le Loyer uses an impressive range of sources to support his arguments, including citing the opinions of Jewish cabalists and Muslims. Loyer also includes a number of hitherto unknown stories and examples. Through his work as a lawyer he was able to access an unprecedented range of spectral narratives. His treatise is also notable for being the first work of French.

A handsome copy of this monumental and most influential work.

Provenance: Dr. Alan Gauld (1932-2024), parapsychologist and historian of psychical research, formerly of the University of Nottingham; his ex libris label and ownership inscription.

 [BM STC Fr. C17th p. 305:796. Thorndike VI 531-33. Caillet 6456 Brunet III 959. Not in Duveen.]