A world within: The devil, delusions and early modern cognition

Demonology significantly advanced the idea that the world might not be what it appears to be, and that the senses – and especially vision – were uncertain and unreliable. This chapter focuses on two of the most influential demonologists in early modern Europe – Heinrich Kramer and Johann Weyer – and explore some of the different ways in which they conceived of the mind, the mechanisms of internal illusions, and the role played by the devil in the making of such delusions. It examines, in particular, how these demonological discussions were underpinned by a fundamental analogy between the mind and the physical world – the ‘world within’ and the ‘world without’. Like us, demonologists relied heavily on metaphorical language, and particularly on spatial metaphors, to conceptualise the mind and its malfunctions. The mind was conceived of as a physical space, and cognition as a spatial and dynamic process, dependent on the journeys undertook by the entities inhabiting this inner territory

The Mythmaker of the Sabbat: Pierre de Lancre’s Tableau des mauvais anges et demons (1612)

The witch-hunt De Lancre conducted, together with his colleague Jean d’Espaignet (1564–after 1643), during the summer and autumn of 1609 in the Pays de Labourd, a Basque-speaking territory on France’s border with Spain, is justly ranked among the most famous and notorious of the early modern period. De Lancre's sensationalist 1612 account of his experiences one historian has described it as a work of 'scholarly pornography' includes the most detailed description of the witches' sabbat of the early modern period. The Tableau offered perhaps the most detailed and explicit account of the sabbat in early modern literature, and was one of the very first printed works to describe the sabbat in such detail as a Black Mass that is, as a systematic inversion and parody of the Catholic Mass. De Lancre also devoted an entire chapter to the 'incestuous' Spanish dances that were performed with 'even more liberty and insolence' at the sabbat

Charge induced stability of water droplets in subsaturated environment

Atmospheric liquid and solid water particles are stabilized if they are coated with either negative or positive electric charge. The surface charge causes an increase of the partial pressure of water vapour close to the surface of each particle, effectively allowing the particles to remain in their condensed phase even if the environmental relative humidity drops below unity. The theory, briefly presented in this paper, predicts a zero parameter relation between surface charge density and water vapour pressure. This relation was tested in a series of Electrodynamic Balance experiments. The measurements were performed by stabilizing charged droplets of pure water near an ice-surface. We observed a divergence in radius as the temperature approached the freezing point from below. We find that the measurements confirm the theory within the experimental uncertainty. In some cases this generally overlooked effect may have impact on cloud processes and on results produced by Electrodynamic Balance experiments

Elévations: L'écriture du voyage aérien à la Renaissance

Travellers lifted by dreams or ecstatic trances; explorers of moons and celestial paradises; inquisitive minds borne on the wings of curiosity; witches and roving demons; knights surveying the world from the backs of hippogriffs or flying hippopotami: the Renaissance is full of fictions and fantasies about flight, as this original “pre-history” of aerial voyages shows. Bringing out the importance of ancient and medieval traditions, this book ends, rather than starts, with the lunar fictions of the early seventeenth century, the point of departure for most historical work in this area. Maus de Rolley explores French and European Renaissance narrative fiction as well as learned discourses concerned with questions of flight and elevation (cosmology, astronomy, magic, demonology…). This dialogue between literature and knowledge reveals the power and reach of Renaissance images of flight and their many tales of elevation, tales that, by definition, produce a “decentering” of the world, allowing it to be captured by the human eye and stimulating the invention of “eccentric” worlds. As consummate fables offering the ultimate test of verisimilitude, these flights of fancy also invite us to reconsider early modern conceptions of literary fiction

Le diable à la foire: Jongleurs, bateleurs et prestigiateurs dans le discours démonologique à la Renaissance

This chapter examines the contrasting attitudes to jugglers in early modern demonological treatises. These popular entertainers who specialised in legerdemain and feats of agility were denounced by some demonologists as disciples of the devil; but other authors saw their tricks as a form of natural magic that did not necessarily entail a collusion with the devil, even if it could sometimes be put to use by demons to forge their illusions. The devil, in these treatises, is presented as a consummate juggler, whose powers of illusion rely on his ability to manipulate objects, to convey them swiftly from one hiding place to another, to substitute one for the other. I argue that jugglers’ tricks therefore offered to early modern demonoogists an interpretative and cognitive model allowing to understand and coneptualise the action of the devil within the natural world. To some extent, it is the practical experience of this kind of popular, visible and accessible magic that allowed early modern demonologists and their contemporaries to ‘think with demons’

La part du diable: Jean Wier et la fabrique de l'illusion diabolique

This article examines Johann Wier’s theories on the formation of diabolical illusions, linking them to medieval and early modern discourses on dreams and imagination. It highlights the role played by the devil in this process, and thus challenges the vision of Wier as a forerunner of Charcot and modern psychiatry

Le diable dans la bibliothèque: la classification des traités de démonologie dans les catalogues bibliographiques aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles

Dans Thinking with Demons (1997), Stuart Clark a montré que la démonologie, cette composante essentielle de la pensée de la première modernité, n’était pas une affaire de spécialistes: ‘penser avec le diable’ était une activité aussi fondamentale pour le théologien que pour le juriste, le philosophe naturel, l'historien ou le médecin. Cependant, les auteurs des traités que nous désignons aujourd'hui comme ‘démonologiques’ avaient-ils conscience de faire œuvre commune, d'appartenir à une même famille disciplinaire? Les sciences du diable étaient-elles envisagées comme un objet de savoir spécifique? Cet article propose de répondre à cette question par un biais inédit, en examinant la place réservée aux traités démonologiques dans les catalogues bibliographiques des xvie et xviie siècles. Cette enquête, qui se veut un premier pas en direction d'une histoire matérielle de la démonologie, permet de confirmer deux hypothèses au sujet du statut scientifique de la démonologie. La première est que la démonologie était en effet perçue par ses premiers lecteurs comme un corpus cohérent et circonscrit. La seconde est que cet ensemble de textes se caractérisait néanmoins, d'un point de vue disciplinaire, par sa très grande labilité et transversalité, déjouant les principes naissants de la classification bibliographique

Growth in brine, at low temperature and different organic acids, of yeasts from table olives

The evolution of the main yeast species related to table olives (Pichia anomala, Pichia membranaefaciens, Pichia minuta, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Candida diddensii, Candida famata, and Debaryomyces hansenii) at low temperature (7ºC) and different physico-chemical brine conditions was studied, using the log of the relative growth as response. In general, the NaCl concentration had a reduced effect, which was slightly greater at pH 3.5, although it was never significant. The effects of pH and type of acid were significant: the presence of acetic acid always diminished the yeast population with time; however the population was maintained, or even slightly increased, in the presence of lactic acid. Such effects were higher at pH 3.5 than at pH 4.0. The behavior of the yeast species was diverse. Sacch. cerevisiae, P. membranaefaciens, C. famata y Deb. hansenii disminished with time in 8% NaCl. The yeast population markedly decreased at pH 3.5, mainly in the case of Sacch. cerevisiae and C. famata. The presence of acetic acid decreased the yeast population in most species and always lead to a progressive diminution of it with time. No differences between species due to lactic acid was observed. These results can be of interest for the development of commercial presentations of table olives to be preserved at low temperature and with a reduced level of sodium.Se ha estudiado la evolución de las principales especies de levaduras relacionadas con las aceitunas de mesa (Pichia anomala, Pichia membranaefaciens, Pichia minuta, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Candida diddensii, Candida famata , y Debaryomyces hansenii) a baja temperara (7ºC) y en diversas condiciones físico-químicas en las salmueras, utilizando el log del crecimiento relativo como respuesta. En general, la concentración de sal tiene un efecto muy limitado, que se aprecia algo más a pH 4, pero sin llegar a ser significativo. Los efectos del tipo de ácido y pH fueron significativos; la presencia de acético disminuye la población con el tiempo, mientras que con el láctico se mantiene e, incluso, se eleva ligeramente. Estos efectos se acentúan a pH 3,5. El comportamiento de cada levadura frente a las diferentes variables ha sido diverso. La población relativa de las especies Sacch. cerevisiae , P. membranaefaciens , C. famata y Deb. hansenii disminuyó con el tiempo en presencia del 8 % de NaCl. A pH 3,5 disminuye muy sensiblemente la población inicial en todos los casos, siendo tal influencia más destacada en Sacch. cerevisiae y C. famata. La presencia de acético disminuye de forma importante la población inicial inoculada en la mayoría de los casos y provocó siempre un descenso paulatino en las mismas. No se observó diferencias entre las especies debido al ácido láctico. Estos estudios pueden ser de interés para el desarrollo de presentaciones comerciales de aceitunas de mesa refrigeradas y con reducido nivel de sodio.Los autores desean expresar su gratitud a la CICYT (AGL2000-1539-CO2-01) y a la Unión Europea (FAIR-97-9526) por la financiación parcial de esta investigación.Peer reviewe