BOVET, Richard ( Introduction & notes by Montague Summers).

Pandaemonium [ or the Devil's Cloyster ].

Kent, UK: The Hand and Flower Press, 1951. First Edition Thus. Hardcover. Large octavo. xxviii + 192pp. Original red cloth lettered in gilt on spine, multi-colored title design on front board. B/w frontis. Facsimile title page. Notes. A limited edition of 1000 copies printed on rag paper. First published in 1684 with the subtitle "Being a further Blow to Modern Sadduceism, Proving the Existence of Witches and Spirits in a Discourse deduced from the Fall of the Angels, the Propagation of Satans Kingdom before the Flood: The Idolatry of the Ages after, greatly advancing Diabolical Confederacies. With an Account of the Lives and Transactions of several Notorious Witches. Also; A Collection of several Authentick Relations of Strange Apparitions of Dæmons and Spectres, and Fascinations of Witches, never before Printed." The book is a striking refutation of the scepticism of Scot and Webster: Bovet fervently argues the reality of witchcraft both on theological grounds and by citing a number of supposed recent examples. His work is at least as much an attack on the Papacy and its supporters, which like witchcraft he saw as evidence of the Devil's work. Summers who provided the new Introduction never got to see the completion of this volume, as it was in press at the time that he died. Cloth a little darkened and slightly flecked, a few faint marks to cloth, light bruising and chafing to spine ends and corners, Australian bookshop sticker on front pastedown, page edges a little darkened and lightly foxed, pages toned. Overall a tight, unmarked VG copy (no dust jacket). Item #58759

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