Jacques Fontaine - Des Marques des sorciers - 1860

Jacques Fointaine, Des marques des sorciers et de la reelle. In Lyon, 1611. Rarissima e sconosciuta ristampa ottocentesca (1860 circa) stampata senza data. Cm 19,5 x 11,5, legatura coeva in mezza tela, piatti marmorizzati, pagine 45 (1). In ottimo stato - una piccola apertura al dorso - normali tracce del tempo. In asta senza riserva!!!!

Jacques Fontaine was the court physician to the King of France (conseiller et médecin ordinaire du Roy). The event: The book was written in the wake of the enormous emotion stirred by the Gaufridy trial of 1611. Gaufridy was a priest from Marseille accused of being a terrible sorcerer and of causing the possession of some Ursuline nuns in Aix-en-Provence. He was condemned to death and executed. Fontaine’s aim: He wrote this brief treatise only a few months after the trial to lend importance to medicine in the courts. He wanted to prove that doctors (not only priests or judges) were the key figures in understanding whether a person was truly possessed or had made a pact with the devil. The recognition of the “Mark of the Devil” (Les marques des sorciers).
Fontaine, as a physician, analyzes the physical signs left by Satan on the bodies of the witches. He explains that these marks are in reality parts of dead flesh created by the devil on the human body. The main characteristic of these points was absolute insensitivity: if pricked with a needle, they should not hurt or bleed. Fontaine asserts the physician’s role as the only true expert capable of performing this “medical examination” during trials.
2. The reality of corporeal possession (La réelle possession)
In the second part of the book, the author attacks the idea that possession is a fiction or a mere mental illness (like melancholy). He firmly maintains that the devil has real power to physically possess a man’s body, moving it and using it at his pleasure. He unpacks the “tricks” and strategies that the devil uses to make skeptics believe that bodies are not truly carried to the Sabbath (the gatherings of witches).
Jacques Fontaine’s book is a fundamental document because it marks the official entry of medical science into witchcraft trials. Instead of relying solely on superstitions or prayers, it sought a “scientific proof” (the insensitivity to pain) to condemn the defendant. It was a highly influential text and was reprinted several times precisely for its apparent medical authority.