MICHAËLIS, Pneumalogie ou discours des esprits, 1587. Exemplaire Maurice Garçon

First edition.

Sébastien Michaelis (1543-1618), a Dominican priest, participated as vice-inquisitor in one of the most spectacular witchcraft trials of the great witch hunts that shook Europe at the turn of the 16th century.
The Avignon affair, as it would later become known, ended with the conviction and execution of eighteen individuals.

The trial, whose judgment Michaelis reproduces in his book, provided an opportunity to delve into the practices of witches and their dealings with demons: On which day is Satan celebrated? Why does the Devil appear in the form of a goat? Can human bodies fly? Why are there more witches than warlocks? These are among the questions to which the inquisitor provides answers.

In his conclusion—which would vanish from subsequent editions—the inquisitor wonders whether the witches' testimonies might simply be the product of "dreams and imaginations." However, even if they were dreams, our Dominican concludes that if imagination produced pleasure, then the witch is doubly guilty and deserves death!

This valuable copy previously belonged to Maurice Garçon (no. 135 in his sale catalog), a renowned collector specializing in demonology and witchcraft trials. He left a handwritten note on the endpaper, highlighting the significance of the conclusion.