Читать книгу The Element Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Complete A–Z for the Entire Magical World - Judika Illes - Страница 84

How many books, whether defined as Books of Shadows or grimoires, were burned during the witch-hunts? If it’s impossible to determine the number of human victims, it’s even more impossible to determine the quantity of books. Magical possessions, or anything perceived as such belonging to those convicted of witchcraft, were burned, especially books. What was destroyed in these fires? Who knows? The books are gone and in general it is as if they never existed.

There is an important exception however. The Dominican inquisitor Nicholas Eymericus confiscated and burned many magical books (including such titles as The Table of Solomon and The Treasury of Necromancy) but not before he read them first. Although these books no longer exist, his descriptions do. He wrote a Directory for Inquisitors. According to Eymericus, confiscated books described elaborate magical systems, demons and the means necessary to command them, words of power and what Eymericus described as the diabolical pact.