‎Giovanni Francesco PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA‎
‎Dialogo intitolato la strega, overo de gli inganni de demoni... tradotto in lingua toscana per il Signore Abate Turino Turini da Pescia. ‎

‎Pescia: Lorenzo Torrentino, 1555, 4to, [13] 18-126 [1] of colophon 1 blank. Book in Italian. 1st Italian Edition (2nd overall) of this rare demonology tratise. Later (18/19 .century) later half morocco with gold lettered spine and blank pages. Marbled endpapers. Architectural woodcut border on title-page with a small view of Florence and with Medici coat of arms. Woodcut initials, woodcut vignette on verso of A4. Colophon leaf at end. Very ginuine interior, clean, without marks, annotations, stamps and ex libris. No foxing and stains. Complete. First Italian edition and the first translation from the 1523 Latin original by Turino Turini, marking the earliest book on witchcraft printed in the Italian vernacular. While the dialogue format reinforces the grim theological framework of the Malleus Maleficarum and contemporary inquisitorial manuals regarding sabbaths and demonic pacts, it stands apart for its erudition. By sophisticatedly weaving classical and pagan citations into medieval scholastic precepts, Pico della Mirandola effectively pioneered the "humanistic literature of witchcraft," bridging Renaissance intellectualism and counter-reformation demonology. The work embodies the Renaissance approach to demonology, demonstrating how a humanist could substantiate the reality of witchcraft, transvection, and the sabbath using classical sources alongside scripture and inquisitorial manuals. Ultimately, the early modern obsession with demonology is presented not as an irrational residue of a rational age, but as a foundational conceptual nexus essential to understanding sixteenth-century philosophy. Bibliography: Censimento 16 CNCE 34704; Riccardi II, 281; Moreni, Annali della tipografia di Lorenzo Torrentino, s. 394; Sander 5688; Graesse V, 283; USTC No. 848435; Caillet 8654; Encyclopaedia of Witchcraft 2006.‎

Reference : GEJ-11

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