This edited volume, the product of a conference held at the University of Lausanne in 2012, bears testimony to the vitality of the study of early modern demonology in the francophone world, especially among literature specialists. The principal aim of this volume – whose title is obviously inspired by Stuart Clark's great Thinking with demons (1997) – is to lay bare the importance of demonological writings before the better-known works of the late sixteenth century and to transcend standard medieval and early modern boundaries. In addition, the volume (following in Clark's footsteps) also seeks to transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries between demonologists and theologians, between normative and heterodox texts, and across a range of genres. The wide-ranging but fascinating set of case studies brought together in this volume triumphantly succeeds in realising these aims.
The volume divides into two sections. The first chapter of the ‘Démonologie(s)’ section, by Julien Véronèse, studies a neglected and still unpublished 1359 manuscript, composed by the Dominican inquisitor Nicholas Eymerich following conflicts with secular rulers (in a rather neat parallel with the genesis of the later Malleus maleficarum). Véronèse demonstrates both Eymerich's importance in the ‘hereticisation’ of magic and the treatise's link to still earlier demonological debates at the court of Pope John xxii. In her chapter, Catherine Chène emphasises the pastoral and didactic nature of another important early treatise, Johannes Nider's Formicarius (c. 1436–8), which only turned to demons and witches in the last of its five books. Chène shows that the Formicarius, essentially an anthology of moral exempla, often depicted witches as victims of the devil and (contrary to the Malleus later) held that they could still be saved through penance and the Church. Martine Ostorero explores a strange feature in Nicolas Jacquier's De calcatione demonum seu malignorum spirituum (1458), namely its emphasis, as the title already suggests, on the trampling of demons by priests. Jacquier, an experienced exorcist (and like Nider and Eymerich, a Dominican), considered the priest's trampling demons a more humiliating punishment than simply expelling them. Franck Mercier studies the Latin and French versions of Jean Tinctor's treatise on the Waldensian ‘witches’ (c. 1460–7). Although Tinctor's careful French translation (aimed at the Burgundian court) limits the power of the devil, accompanying illustrations show witches in full flight. (The same, one could add, would later happen with Ulrich Molitor's De lamiis.) Jean-Marc Mandosio investigates an interesting dichotomy in the works of the Dominican Leandro Alberti. Alberti, who played an extremely important role in publishing and translating Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola's Strix (1523–4), and also authored a cosmographical work which approached local lore about the actions of demons with amusement and scepticism, rejecting swimming devils as a plausible explanation for a change of water levels in one lake, for instance. Christian Renoux explores the confusion (at the time) between demonic possession and obsession. The two concepts had long been used interchangeably until obsession, which conveys a sense of being externally besieged by demons, came to be treated as a lesser form of possession and as a middle ground between a diagnosis of possession and complete scepticism.
The second, more interdisciplinary section – ‘Les Demons dans les Cadres de la Pensée Occidentale’ – opens with Philippe Faure's study of the visionary experiences and spiritual writings of Bridget of Sweden and Mechthild of Magdeburg, which teach an optimistic mystical theology. Florence Chave-Mahir's extremely interesting chapter introduces us to the relics of St Giovanni Gualberto which developed the reputation of being particularly effective against demonic possession and which, for a time, made their convent home a pilgrimage site for the diabolically afflicted. Gualberto's miracle stories, with tales of amorous priests and strange magical experiments, shed important light on demonological beliefs in fifteenth-century Tuscany. Élyse Dupras's study of the use of demons in medieval French drama shows them mostly fulfilling their expected roles as tempters and as hapless opponents, with the added unexpected bonus of devils acting as ‘cook’, serving up devilish recipes often involving human meat. Marina Montesano studies the etymological resonance between the Italian word for witch, strega, and the classical figure of the strix, associated especially with animal transformation and infanticide. Montesano argues that these etymological roots prompted classically trained Italian preachers, especially Bernardino of Siena, to recognise those same associations in the streghe of their own day. In the penultimate chapter, Marianne Closson explores the extent to which demonologists read their classical literature as true history. Although Closson has a point when she singles out Jean Bodin for his literalism (a position she labels as ‘extremist, even terrorist’), her wider discussion lacks nuance and is made less persuasive by her decision to study these euhemerist readings solely in a demonological context. (As Julia Haig Gaisser has shown, reading Apuleius’ Golden ass with its famous tale of animal transformation as a work of autobiography was certainly not unusual in the Renaissance.) Finally, the last chapter, by Jean-Patrice Boudet, studies an extremely unusual and fascinating late medieval magical manual with Arab and Hebrew roots in which a ‘demon’ describes how he could be summoned for advice. Anyone interested and with three hours to spare on a Wednesday night might turn straight to page 331, where the full set of instructions have been transcribed. The remainder of this excellent edited volume, however, is well worth reading as well.
