Dictionnaire infernal, tome 1

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Since 1863, the illustrations from de Plancy’s book have also been used to accompany esoteric titles such as new printings of the Lesser Key of Solomon, plus any number of books on magic and demonology (thanks, Public Domain! He combined realistic details with fantastical elements, creating some of the most original and vivid depictions of demons ever made. Theologians should leave to the poets the depiction of Hell, and not themselves seek to frighten minds with hideous paintings and appalling books" (p. Many articles written in the Dictionnaire Infernal illustrate the author's vacillation between rationalism, faith, and willingness to believe without evidence.

The Dictionnaire Infernal (English: " Infernal Dictionary") is a book on demonology, describing demons organised in hierarchies. Perks include receiving twice-a-year our very special themed postcard packs and getting 10% off our prints. For a thousand different people they will have the same result; and consulted twenty times about the same subject, they will produce twenty contradictory productions" (p.

Collin de Plancy’s dictionary may be a grimoire, or his grimoire may be a dictionary, but fundamentally the distinction between them is less stark than might be supposed. Text pages are presented as double-page scans, meaning the text is illegible on most kindle devices. A specialist in early modern and early American literature, he holds a PhD in English from Lehigh University, and his most recent book is Printed in Utopia: The Renaissance's Radicalism (Zero Books, 2020). In his later editions of the Dictionnaire Infernal, he affirmed the existence and power of the demons and added many engravings and stories to illustrate their nature and actions. Ed Simon explores the work and how at its heart lies an unlikely but pertinent synthesis of the Enlightenment and the occult.

When de Plancy first published his guide to the world of demons in 1818, he had a reputation as an opponent of superstition and religion. There is Asmodeus, who the Talmud claimed was born of a succubus who slept with King David, but who Collin de Plancy argued was “the ancient serpent who seduced Eve. Although Jacques Collin de Plancy’s Dictionnaire infernal, a monumental compendium of all things diabolical, was first published in 1818 to much success, it is the fabulously illustrated final edition of 1863 which secured the book as a landmark in the study and representation of demons.All together, across nearly six hundred pages, Collin de Plancy provided entries for sixty-five different demons, including favorites from the pages of Dante, Milton, and others, such as Asmodeus, Azazel, Bael, Behemoth, Belphégor, Belzebuth, Mammon, and Moloch. de Plancy collaborated with Jacques Paul Migne, a French priest, to complete a Dictionary of the occult sciences or theological Encyclopaedia, which is described as an authentic Roman Catholic work.