Marie Joseph Gabriel Antoine Jogand-Pagès, better known by the pen name Léo Taxil (March 21, 1854 – March 31, 1907), was a French writer and journalist who became known for his strong anti-Catholic and anti-clerical views. He is also known for the Taxil hoax, a spurious exposé of Freemasonry and the Roman Catholic Church's opposition to it. The first book produced by Taxil after his conversion was a four-volume history of Freemasonry, which contained fictitious eyewitness verifications of their participation in Satanism. With a collaborator who published as "Dr. Karl Hacks", Taxil wrote another book called 'The Devil in the Nineteenth Century', which introduced a new character, Diana Vaughan, a supposed descendant of the Rosicrucian alchemist Thomas Vaughan. The book contained many tales about her encounters with incarnate demons, one of whom was supposed to have written prophecies on her back with its tail, and another who played the piano in the shape of a crocodile. Complete original set of 'The Devil in the Nineteenth Century' in two volumes, with period professional bookbinding. Pages are dampstained but illustrations and writing are still clear. Items will be dispatched with insurance and tracking.