Of these three books, I find the first the most frightening because it deals with the real life manifestation of human evil, the next two are more historical analysis of ideas which are the proemial forces behind evil. So here they are.

733J Remy, Nicolas (1530-1612)

Daemonolatreiae libri tres Nicolai Remigij sereniss. Ducis Lotharingica congitoris publici: Ex iudicijs capitalibus DCCCC plus minus hominum, qui fortilegis crimen intra annos XV in Lotharingia capite luerent.

Coloniae Agrippinae : Apud Henricum Palthenii, 1596 $4,500

Octavo 13 x 8.5 cm Signatures: π¹ (extra-text added plate from another book )A¹²A-R¹² This copy is bound in full conrtempory vellum over paste boards with app edges an hand marked spine with a “N’ and a “6” . The Title page is marked with the ownership of Casparus Schaefer D and Nicolaus Pirsocji 1672 Wittenberg. , on the back pastedown there is a cross surround by a wreath with a chalice imposed over it in black ink.

Nicolas Remi has been called the Torquemada of Lorraine from his persecution of those he believed to have dealings with witches-or indulging in the practice of witchcraft. This book of his has been styled a monument of credulity and fanaticism.

Nicolas Remy, a French demonologist, was the author of the frequently reprinted Demonolatry (1595), a standard reference for witch-hunters in the next centuries. He was born around 1530 at Charmes, Vosges Department, in Lorraine. His father, Gérard Remy, was provost of Charmes and his uncle held a prominent position in the department. Following their lead, he also became a lawyer. He studied at the University of Toulouse where fellow demonologist Jean Bodin (1529-1596) also studied and later taught. He married Anne Marchand with whom he had seven children. In 1563 Remy relocated to Paris where his career blossomed. In 1570 he was appointed lieutenant general of Vosges, succeeding his retiring uncle. Five years later he was also named privy councilor to the Duke Charles III of Lorraine. In 1591 he became attorney general of Lorraine.

Remy traced his interest in witchcraft to his childhood, when he first witnessed a trial of an accused witch. Once placed in a position of power in Lorraine, he persecuted them mercilessly, and bragged that he had been responsible for the condemnation of over 900. In 1582 he personally prosecuted one woman on charges of working malevolent magic after his eldest son had died, believing she was responsible for his death. In 1592 the plague hit Nancy, and he retired to the country to write his book, concerned that all should know the power of witches. He wrote in haste, and the volume was unorganized and abruptly changed subjects.

Demonolatry covers two broad subjects, the nature of Satanism and the activities of witches, especially their sexual lives. Following the lead of the Witches Hammer, the fountainhead of witch-hunting books, Remy assumed that witches are worshipping Satan. He also assumed that a sexual relationship with His Infernal Majesty was essential to the witchcraft rites as were illicit relationships with other members of the secret witchcraft fraternity. The strength of Remy’s text was the material he brought from his personal involvement with numerous cases. His own personal reflections gave the volume an air of authority that previous witch-hunting volumes had lacked, which accounts for its widespread acceptance as a standard authority on the subject. Remy argued that the influence of Satan was everywhere, in fact that whatever was out of the normal was probably due to the devil. There are no unexplained facts, hence whatever is unknown is of the realm of demons.

Remy remained at his post until his death in April of 1612. As attorney general he was able to prioritize witchcraft cases and alter decisions in instances where local magistrates had, in his opinion, been too lenient on witches. It was noted that he retained his hatred and fear of witches to the very end.

Sources:
Robbins, Russell Hope. The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology. New York: Crown Publishers, 1970.

Adams, R-350; STC German British Museum,; p. 732

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725J George Stengel 1585-1651.

Paraenesis de rvina Lvciferi, cæterorumq; Angelorum, auctore Georgio Stengelio

Ingolstadii, typis G. Hænlini,1630. $4,200

Duodecimo 12 x 8 cm. Signatures: )(¹²,A-M¹² lacking blank? M^12.  Bound in contemporary calf over paste boards with yapp edges, stamped in blind,  with a stamp of the Jesuit library of Viena 1636. 

Stengel authored about 90 books and is  one of my favorite Jesuit Authors, Writing on many subjects including monsters, Earthquakes, Lucifer, and other questionable angels, Egyptian magic, the Honorarium Hæreticorum is one I’m looking forward to find! And Angels as this book which is mostly about Lucifer, based on a Lecture given by Stengel in 1622 . As in most of his books Stengel has a schoolastic throughness which is quite enlightening, he has refrences from Classical pagan authors, Aristotle,Plato,Seneca….  Church fathers : Jerome,Aquinas,Augustine ,Bernard  then  of course Biblical source reference  Ezeliel  and Isaiah, Mathew,Job  as well as Jesuit contemporaries Drexel and Peter Röstius and medieval theologians such as  Petrus Blesensis. On its own the fall of Lucifer is quite a muddle and is full of contradictions , “As a result of this heinous sin against God, Lucifer was banished from living in heaven (Isaiah 14:12). He became corrupt, and his name changed from Lucifer (“morning star”) to Satan (“adversary”). His power became completely perverted (Isaiah 14:12,16,17). And his destiny, following the second coming of Christ, is to be bound in a pit during the 1000-year millennial kingdom over which Christ will rule (Revelation 20:3), and eventually will be thrown into the lake of fire (Matthew 25:41).”(from Satan – Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology) 

Georg Stengel was born in 1584 in Augsburg he entered the Society of Jesus in 1601 and spent his whole life close to Ingolstadt. , he was a novice at Landsberg and taught at Munich, in 1618 he was Rector at the college at Dillingen and in 1640 he retrned to Ingolstadt. Stengel believed that all the punishments of God point to the need for an implacable persecution of witches on the Franconian model. (between 1600 and 1605 in Lower Franconia hundreds of ‘witches’ were burnt 250 in Fulda, 139 in Freigericht and more than 100 in Hanau)  Stengel, while a professor at Ingolstadt, (in his great work, “De judiciis divinis”) urges, as reasons why a merciful God permits illness, his wish to glorify himself through the miracles wrought by his Church, and his desire to test the faith of men by letting them choose between the holy aid of the Church and the illicit resort to medicine, declares that there is a difference between simple possession and that brought by bewitchment, and that the latter is the more difficult to treat.

DeBacker Sommervogel Vol. VII Col.1554 Nº.60 

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Thyraeus’ two books on Demonic “obsession” or “speaking in unknown languages and hungering for raw meat”

682J Petrus Thyraeus (1546–1601)

Daemoniaci, hoc est: De obsessis a spiritibus daemoniorum hominibus, liber unus: in quo Dæmonum obsidentium conditio: obsessorum hominum Status; rationeel & modi, quibus ab Obseßis Dæmones exiguntur: causæ item tune fifficilis exitus ipsorum, tum signorom quæ exituri relinquunt: locoa demique, quo egreßi tendunt, & his similia, discutiuntur & explicantur.

bound with 

Loca infesta, hoc est: de infestis, ob molestantes daemoniorvm et defvnctorvm hominvm spiritvs, locis, liber vnvs:in quo spirituum infestantium genera, conditiones, vires, discrimina, opera, mala quae viventibus afferunt ; rationes item quibus partim cognoscuntur, partim proscribuntur ; modi denique, quibus loca ab ipsorum molestia liberntur, his’que similia discutiuntur & explicantur. Accessit eiusdem Libellus de terricvlamentis nocturnis quae hominum mortem solent portendere.

)both( Coloniae Agrippinæ: ex officina Mater, Cholini, sumptibus Gosuini Cholini, 1598. . $5,700

Two Quarto volumes bound as one. 19.7 x 15.5 cm. Signatures ad I. (:)⁴(:)(:)², A-Z⁴ Aa-Bb⁴,Cc².  ad II. (:)⁴ (:)(:)⁴, A-Xx⁴ Bound in full vellum binding with gilt title on spine label; ownership notes, some of which deleted, on the title page of the first work. age toning throughout due to bad paper. 

The Dæmonici is considered among the first scientific attempts to explain as well as define demonic possession (“obsession”) and exorcism . 

and 

The Local Infesta is an encyclopedia of Haunted and evil places including Purgatory, Hell and the Underground.

Daemoniaci is comprised of 58 Disputation divided into three sections in which he identifies the behavior “symptoms’ of which are and aren not indicative of dæmons , these are quite amusing analysis of deviant and not so deviant human behaviors, including , sleeping late, unpleasant demeanor or the speaking in unidentifiable languages or desiring raw meat.

Loca Infesta, is an encyclopedia of locals infested by deamons and malefactors, Thyæo relies upon not only historical authors such as Aristotle ,Moyses and Virgil but also modern (contemporary to him) authors including protestant, jews and heretics , Including Zwingli, Melanchthon,Cardanu. This work provides a comprehensive view of the various places and types of demonic infestations that were believed to exist during Thyæo’s time. It is a fascinating read for those interested in the history of demonology and exorcism.

Belowtable of contents from the Dæmoniaci

References 

ad I: DeBacker/Sommervogel vol. VIII col. 15 nº15.; BM STC Ger. C16th. p. 862. ; Caillet 10687.; Thorndike VII 368-9 (VD 16) T 1238.

ad II. DeBacker/Sommervogel vol. VIII col. 16 nº20; USTC 673124; Adams, T700; BnF FRBNF31468196; (VD 16) T 1247.