Rare book on witchcraft discovered in Alberta library

[icymist]

Even though he thinks the weathered tome is a fascinating cultural treasure, unearthed by chance in a musty section of an Albertalibrary, Andrew Gow doesn’t like to be near it.

“It’s a very, very nasty piece of work, and I can tell you that I don’t like to touch it,” he said.

The book positions itself as a guide to expunge all evil and vanquish the dark forces of witchcraft detailed so vividly in its 150 pages of 15th-century Burgundian French.

“The real evil is actually in this book, and it’s human. It’s not magical,” said Gow, a medieval history professor. “It’s a view of one’s fellow human beings as agents of the devil that is truly evil.”

http://www.therecord.com/news/canada/article/841220---rare-book-on-witchcraft-discovered-in-alberta-library#.ULEcrYsWAa4.facebook

[Tuesday Afternoon]

1. thanks for posting the link.

[u4ic]

2. Thanks for that

when I go back to visit family and friends, I'll try to have a look. I, too, will no doubt be horrified at what it contains.

[Flaxbee]

3. Interesting; reminds me of a book I just read "A Discovery of Witches"

by Deborah Harkness.

[Lucinda]

6. I just finished this, and the followup book as well.

Interesting books.

[gejohnston]

4. any chance of an English translation on Guttenburg.org?

or scanned on to Google books?

[Behind the Aegis]

5. This sounds very interesting!!

I would love to see it for two reasons, the alleged "evilness" of it, and the fact it is written in Burgundian French. I love stuff like this!

[Lady Freedom Returns]

7. I sounds like a version of the Malleus Maleficarum.

But the maleficarum was written after this. Wonder if they have much of the same things written in it?