BOGUET, Henry ( Translated by E. Allen Ashwin. Edited by Montague Summers ).

An Examen of Witches Drawn from various trials of many of this sect in the district of Saint Oyan De Joux commonly of Burgundy including the procedure necessary to a judge in trials for witchcraft ... [ Discours des Sorciers ].

Suffolk, Great Britian: John Rodker, 1929. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Small octavo. liv + 328pp. Green parchment spine with matching cloth boards, rubricated headings and margin notes. Edition limited to 1275 hand numbered copies, this being copy no. 514. The first English edition of one of the most notorious of the early witch-hunting texts. The author of the work, Henri Boguet (1550-1619), was a respected judge and the President of the Tribunal in St Claude in the Jura region of France. He gained a reputation for the cruelty and zeal of his persecutions, and is personally said to have pronounced or confirmed the death sentence on over six hundred 'witches.' His Examen of Witches [Discours Sorciers] became one of the standard text books of witch-hunting in France. The book contains a significant amount of witch lore, much obtained under torture, with much on the Sabbat and the sexual relations that allegedly took place between witches and their demonic masters - a subject which seemed to hold a particular fascination for Boguet. The work is also famous as one of the earliest published sources on werewolves - based on Boguet's first hand observations. Parchment unevenly discolored (as common), very much so at base of spine, spine leaned & slightly creased, corners lightly bumped, owner's name & address on verso of title-page, and on verso of first blank page and rear pastedown. A solid near-VG copy in a somewhat shabby Fair dust jacket (dust jacket worn & torn, discoloured, 1" chip at bottom of spine, considerable chipping & loss at top-edge. Now in protective mylar cover). Item #47248

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