Customer Reviews

Picture Book of Devils, Demons and Witchcraft

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is not meant to be an introduction to Wicca or a history of witchcraft and demonology. It's intended purpose is simply to provide an illustrated reference work primarily for historians, teachers, artists, craftsman, and authors working in the area of witchcraft and demonology.

That being said, the book is divided into twelve chapters, each dealing with various aspects of witchcraft, death, demons, and the occult and providing a plentiful cornucopia of illustrations, woodcuts, copperplates, and artwork representative of the subject at hand. The works of Durer, Dore, and others appear together with illustrations from such famous demonological works such as Colin De Plancy's "Dictionnarie Infernal" and Francesco Maria Guazzo's "Compendium Maleficarum" as well as countless others from ancient to modern times.

This is a first class illustrated reference book and will be useful to any number of those interested in the history of illustration of the Dark Arts.

Not only does this book not say anything particully bad about Wicca or witchcraft, the first sentence of the chapter of Witches and Warlocks explicitly states:

"The true practicing witches of the late Middle Ages,Renaissance and later periods were most likely stubborn adherents of pre-Christian pagan religious beliefs in which the deity or deities partook of animal forms."

The reviewer who stated that it's books like these that promote religious intolerance against neopaganism obviously just took one look at the title without ever even opening the book. The pictures provide us with a great insight into the mentality of the Christian church throughout history. The favorite works are the ones depicting the four horsemen of the appocolypse. Anyone who is interested paganism, demonology, Christian history or religion in general should pick this book up. It delongs on the shelf of every neopagan for the same reason as Malleus Malificarum and Compendium Malificarum.

A wonderfull book of woodcuts on a facinating subject, with short and to-the-point commentary. Unlike one of the reveiwers, I have found nothing in the book that spreads falsehoods or encorages hatred of the Wiccan religion.

I will go along with the two people below me and say that to say this book is an asset to anti-paganism is a generic complaint, and is a real destraction from what this book is about, artwork. Amoung my huge collection of books concerning European paganism and shamanism, I have several that deal with demonology. And this is one of the best that I have. The fact that this is primarily a picture book is actually a testament to Wicca, because it shows us how demonology and Satanism are mostly products of what happens when the imagination runs loose.

I first saw this book showcased in a brief scene in the movie Paranormal Activity; I have been looking for a book that only displayed artwork instead of lots of speculative history on the other "invisible man". This volume is one of the best art books on Devils, Demons and Witchcraft I have ever seen. It can be awing, interesting and even disturbing. One of the things I noticed was that none of the 244 illustrations were in color. For most of the book this is appropriate, especially for the Death and Dance Macabre sections. This mostly adds to the dark and grim atmosphere of the illustrations presented. On the downside, lack of color can also take away from the brutal realism portrayed within this book.


The Book:
Devils Demons and Witchcraft (FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1971) 174 pages has a table of contents, a complete list of the 244 illustrations in alphabetical order including page number, an introduction of the book and a list of 40 books in the DOVER PICTORIAL ARCHIVE SERIES. It can be found on Amazon for around $14.95 it is a large paperback book with full page illustrations. Beneath each picture is a title and source of the art work. No real reading here, just inspirational sources of Demonic artwork.


Devils demons and witchcraft is arranged by chapter and in the following order:

Devils and Demons: This section begins with an "express" paragraph describing his looks and placement throughout history, It contains 36 depictions included are demons causing women to "gossip" during Mass. The temptation of St. Anthony, St. Patrick and Jesus, possession of people who engage in "forbidden" acts such as self conceit, servitude to Satan, many portrayals of biblical proportions and devils and demons in their many forms.

Casus Luciferi: Starts with a brief paragraph about the fall of Lucifer and his demons, astounding artwork here. Unfortunately it only contains 4 entries.

Faust and Mephistopheles: This paragraph briefly describes Faust and how it appears throughout literature. It contains 8 illustrations including an engraving of Faust performing magic by Rembrandt.

Hell and Damnation: Brief description of the different concepts of hell such as Dante's Inferno, and many diverse Religious portrayals. It contains 16 illustrations including rare punishments for each of the "seven deadly sins".

The Apocalyptic Horsemen: Referencing visions granted to St. John and Recorded in the Book of Revelation chapter 6, verses 1-8, identifying Death, Plague, Famine and War. It contains only 4 illustrations including a famous Allegoric representation from Albrecht Durer's Apocalypse (1498).

Witches and Warlocks: Depicts the practice of Witchcraft of the late Middle Ages, Renaissance and later periods. It contains 26 illustrations engaging in different forms of Witchcraft. Allegiances given to Satan in exchange for power, two more fantastic sketches by Albrecht Durer and a 1709 print of Macbeth and the three witches (Act IV, Scene i). From N. Rowe's first illustrated edition of "William Shakespears Workes".

Witch-hunting: Opens with a brief statement about Catholic and Protestant involvement in Witch-Hunting. Including the most famous witch hunt in America the "Salem Witch Trials". It contains 15 illustrations including fantastic rare copies and documentation of Cotton Mather's Witch-Hunt.

Ars Moriendi: Brief description about the book "Ars Moriendi" (The Art of Dying) and the struggle in the mind of a dying man and the (Good & Evil) spiritual fight over his soul. It contains 6 illustrations including 4 woodcuts from Ars Moriendi.

Danse Macabre: A favorite medieval theme depicting Death in the form of a skeleton and the rise of its popularity throughout Europe. It contains 42 illustrations including the woodcut illustrations of the "Dance of Death" by Hans Holbein and features the complete woodcut "Dance of Death" alphabet. The bulk of the artwork lands in this section and some of the most detailed drawings I have ever seen on the illustrative persona of "Death".

Memento Mori: This section covers the ancient symbols and glyphs of Death. It contains 38 illustrations of fabulous high detailed artwork including a page from an Egyptian papyrus "Book of the Dead", emblems of Death and rare religious engravings from tombs and literary works are featured, awesome section.

Resurrection and Reckoning: Opens with the paragraph "In Christian belief, Christ rose from the dead, and on Judgment Day, the last day of the world, everyone who ever lived will awaken from the dead and be tried by the Lord and His angels. Many great works of art have been based on this theme." It contains 6 illustrations from Christ resurrecting to "The last Judgment". Nice artwork presented here but chapter far too short.

Religio-Political Devilry: The final chapter in this book closes with the following paragraph: "Devils, demons and similar infernal figures (including swine) have been favorite material for religious and political pamphleteers and caricaturists of all denominations and convictions for centuries. Writers and artists attacking such real and alleged abuses as drinking, dancing, smoking, gambling, counterfeiting and usury have not hesitated to press Satan into their service. This concluding chapter presents a wide panorama of these polemic graphics with a smell of brimstone." It contains 27 illustrations of random Devils and Demons it was just good enough for me to wish for more, nicely done.


My opinion:

This book succeeds in what it advertises: Art work and drawings of a sinister nature. If you're looking to read about Devils, Demons and Witchcraft and you are not too big on illustrative art work then this book will probably not be for you. This book is a must have for any Paranormal Activity movie buff and collector of obscure artwork ! I found a way to counter my initial disappointment (at first glance) of non-color images by copying and then coloring (with colored pencils) the images that most strike me visually. This is a very fun way of completely enjoying the massive detail within (most of) the illustrations. It added to my imagination and it seemed to bring the artwork to life.

This review has nothing to do with how the book treats Wicca or witchcraft. The only question I want to answer here is how good a collection of illustrations on this historical/mythological subject it is, and the answer is: not very good at all. The quality of the illustrations is terrible for the most part. While there are some decent reproductions, most look like someone put a sheet of onion-skin paper up to a wall in some medieval church and hastily traced the picture underneath, all the while looking over his shoulder to make sure the caretaker wasn't approaching. And if you are looking for some good explanatory text, don't hold your breath. Aside from captions below each illustration identifying artist and source, there are no more than two or three introductory sentences PER CHAPTER. Better quality reproductions and some good research and interpretive text could have made this a scholarly tome. As it stands, it seems more like an attempt to make money off a collection of old tracings that were lying around in someone's grandmother's attic.

While it didn't do much for the ill-fated protagonists, the images on view as poor Micah leafed through the book were intriguing enough for me to put this on my list. It did not disappoint. Basically macabre clip art, but a great compendium of such.

I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting but when I got the book and viewed the pictures I only found a little more than a dozen that were useful or interesting for my purpose. However, if you are an art student or just interested in the occult or demonology then this book will provide some unique and intriguing pictures.

Its great to see history about witchcraft and deamons and so on. Some of the pictures are somewhat disturbing and yet understandable where and how the ignorance of the 16th century began. Please remember, that this book barely has words; its just pictures and nothing else, so, buy it if your a history buff in witchcraft and the occult.

nothing else....just a picture book...not too much text. You can't really learn a lot of background knowledge.