PRACTICA DE CONIVRAR EN QUE SE CONTIENEN EXORCISMOS Y CONJUTOS CONTRA LOS MALOS ESPIRITUS, DE QUALQUIERA MODO EXISTENTES EN LOS CUERPOS HUMANOS: ASI EN MEDIACION DE SUPUESTO COMO DE SE INIQUA VIRTUD, POR QUALQUIER MODO, Y MANERA DE ECHIZOS Y CONTRA LANGO
Concepción, Fr. Luis de la.
Alcalá por Francisco García Fernández, Impresor, y Mercader de Libros y a su costa.Año de, 1673. Small octavo in full vellum with leather ties; [36], 200 pages. 5.5" x 4" (14.5 x 10 cm). Very Good in original vellum with partly worn spine; binding tight; end papers are bright and probably newer than text block, which is lightly browned as usual for books of this age. Small stamp, presumably of a monastery library, to title page, as well as a similar 'marca del fuego' burned into bottom edge. An important manual of exorcism, with 'advertencias' and prayers in Spanish and Latin. Maria Tausiet writes the following in her essay 'Patronage of Angels and Combat of Demons': good versus evil in seventeenth-century Spain, which is included in the book Angels in the Modern World, edited by Peter Marshall (Cambridge, 2006): "Due to his reputation as an exorcist, the discalced Trinitarian friar Luis de le Concepcion formed part of the entourage which accompanied Inquisitor Guijaro in the expedition ordered by the king. Years later, he wrote a treatise titled 'Practica de conjurar ('The practice of exorcism'), of which a part was devoted to the 'prodigious events...which occurred...in the town of Tramacastilla, in the mountains of Jaca, in the valley of Tena'. In contrast to the spiritual crisis which the events provoked in both Inquisitor Guijarro and Blasco Lanuza, friar Luis de la Concepcion's tone is decidedly triumphalist. Whether because of his visionary nature, or because his account is to be taken metaphorically, or (as Angel Gari suggests) because 'with his book he sought to enhance his prestige and fame as a gifted exorcist', the friar presents himself as a kind of wizard able to use his powers to counteract a wide range of portents caused by the evil one. According to one of his more striking stories, after he ordered the demons to appear in in the church of Tramacastilla, 'suddenly more than two hundred women...were lifted into the air, so that they almost touched the roof of the said church...and not content with this, Lucifer....commanded all the great benches and seats there to be sent flying to the top of the church'. At this point he addressed Lucider, exclaiming: Infernal dragon, am I to submit to your assaults? I shall command...all the creatures which rose up to descend, first the benches and seats, and then the rational creatures, with no harm to any of them, and will have everything return to its place, without the slightest alteration..." ¶ VERY RARE. Palau 706 (cites the Toledo Publica copy). Only one holding found in WorldCat for this first edition (and only four copies of the 1721 edition). Spain's CCPB (Catalogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliografico Español) lists only three later printings. None in REBUIN. (Item ID: 117075)
$17,500.00
