R/5/766 – texts on the Devil’s Bible, witches and witchcraft

Collection Number:
R/5/766
Object name:
texts on the Devil's Bible, witches and witchcraft
Object type:
Notes
Languages:
English
Book titles referenced:
Devil's Bible / Demonology
People referenced:
Catherine de Medici / james I / Thomas Darling

‘1. Probably the most remarkable of all is the Devil’s Bible, seized by the Sweden in Prague in 1648 and now in the Royal Library in Stockholm. The book is taller than a man, contains 300 parchment pages each the size of a double-bed sheet, and is bound in oak planks 1½ inches thick. According to legend it was the work of a monk arrested for practising the dark arts and offered his freedom if he could write down in one night all the secrets of his craft. He apparently did so – calling on the Devil himself to help.

(I’m guessing these lines are referring to pictures or drawings)

1. the monk of Prague and his master at work on the Devil’s Bible.
2. Catherine de Medici (1519-89), creator of the infamous Black Mass
3. ‘Few can doubt that the fear of Witchcraft and Black Magic continues to envelop parts of the world today’. (BBC)
4. The famous legend of the Witch of Berkeley, who was seized from her coffin by her master, the Devil, and some of his demons
5. The nuns of Wurzburg, who were said to have come under the spell of their sub-prioress, a secret practitioner of the dark arts
6. James I produced a study of devil worship, Demonology (1597), and wrote the brutal 1604 Witchcraft Act into the statute books
7. ‘The power of modern Black Magic is embracing people of all creeds and enslaving them in its chains of evil.’ (Daily Express)
8. Thomas Darling, one of the most famous cases of possession