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On Jon’s Desk: The Wonders of the Invisible World – New England, a Battle Ground of Demons and Lawyers

31 Tuesday Oct 2017

Posted by Jonathan Bingham in On Jon's Desk

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1693, 1862, Battle Ground, Cotton Mather, demons, Elizabeth How, Evil Magical Power, Halloween, John Russell Smith, Jon Bingham, Lawyers, London, New England, Puritan Colony, Salem With Trials, Satan, Spectres, The Devil, The Wonders of the Invisible World, witches

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“It has been a most usual thing for the bewitched Persons, at the same time the Spectres representing the Witches, troubled them, to be visited with Apparitions of Ghosts, pretending to have been Murdered by the Witches then represented. And sometimes the Confessions of the Witches afterwards acknowledged those very Murders, which these Apparitions charged upon them; altho’ they had never heard what Informations had been given by the Sufferers.”

– From chapter four (“The Tryal of Elizabeth How”) of The Wonders of the Invisible World

Title: The Wonders of the Invisible World, being an account of the tryals of several witches lately executed in New-England

Author: Cotton Mather (1663 – 1728)

Published: London: J. R. Smith, 1862

Call Number: BF1575 M38 1862

In the late seventeenth century a battle waged across New England. No, it wasn’t the French and Indian War. That one wouldn’t occur for another half century. This was a battle which became manifest in church sermons and in the court room. It wasn’t fought for land. Rather, souls were at stake. Demons were on the rampage, deploying witches in their evil attacks on righteous, Christian New Englanders. The Devil had mobilized and his captains, the demons, gave marching orders to these witches, who did their best to cause the righteous to suffer. Or so some claimed.

One such individual was Cotton Mather, a socially and politically influential New England Puritan minister, prolific author and pamphleteer. Mather was a graduate of Harvard College and participated in the scientific development of hybridization and disease prevention through inoculation, but it is not for these contributions he is most commonly remembered. Rather, his legacy rests on his support of the Salem witch trials. He became a proponent for the controversial topic of spectral evidence, which is a form of evidence based upon dreams and visions. The verdicts of the Salem witch trials rested greatly on spectral evidence. Mather argued that it was appropriate to admit spectral evidence into legal proceedings, but cautioned that convictions should not be based on spectral evidence alone as it was possible for the Devil to take the shape of an innocent person.

Mather published The Wonders of the Invisible World in 1693, as a defense for the part he played during the trials. In this work he presents himself as an objective historian, drawing on court documents to offer a record of the events. Through this work the reader can easily see that Mather believed that witchcraft existed and was the product of evil magical power granted by the devil to those who swore an oath to him. Mather believed witches were the devil’s tools, used to undermine the Puritan colony in Massachusetts. He fought back against the Devil’s legions as best he could, primarily with sermons and his quill. With his help many alleged followers of Satan became casualties of the then court system.

The accounts contained in this book are super spooky and if a Harvard-trained Puritan minister supporting the admissibility of spectral evidence in court doesn’t scare you I don’t know what will. I just hope you don’t run into any demons, witches, or spectres this Halloween. Or, if you become one yourself, that spectral evidence isn’t laid out against you. Instead, come to Special Collections at the J. Willard Marriott Library and let your socks be scared off while reading Mather’s accounts of the Salem witch trials.

~ Contributed by Jon Bingham, Rare Books Curator

 

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We Recommend — The Theophilus Legend in Medieval Text & Image

21 Wednesday Jun 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Recommended Reading

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Abraham, angels, apostate, Associate Professor, Cambridge, Christ, Comparative Literature, Countess of Winchester, D. S. Brewer, Danish, David, demons, Department of World Languages and Culture, Devil, Earl Ferrers of Derby, embossed leather, European, facsimiles, Faustian, France, French, Gothic, illuminations, Ingeborg Psalter, Jerry Root, Jesse, Lady Eleanor de Quincy, Lambeth Apokalypse, Latin, London, manuscript illuminations, medieval, medieval manuscripts, miniatures, Moses, Muller & Schindler, New Testament, Old Testament, ornamental initials, painting, psalms, Rare Books Department, saint, salvation, St. John, Stuttgart, The University of Utah, Theophilus, Theophilus legend, Virgin, Virgin Mary, William III

Theophilus-Legend
“The legend’s popularity is a tribute to its ability to make the plight of individual salvation tangible and visible at a time when that salvation must seem highly uncertain.” — from the Introduction

The Theophilus Legend in Medieval Text & Image
Jerry Root
Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2017
PN687 Ts R66 2017

From the publisher’s website: “The legend of Theophilus stages an iconic medieval story, its widespread popularity attesting to its grip on the imagination. A pious clerk refuses a promotion, is demoted, becomes furious and makes a contract with the Devil. Later repentant, he seeks out a church and a statue of the Virgin; she appears to him, and he is transformed from apostate to saint. It is illustrated in a variety of media: texts, stained glass, sculpture, and manuscript illuminations.
Through a wide range of manuscript illuminations and a selection of French texts, the book explores visual and textual representations of the legend, setting it in its social, cultural and material contexts, and showing how it explores medieval anxieties concerning salvation and identity. The author argues that the legend is a sustained meditation on the power of images, its popularity corresponding with the rise of their role in portraying medieval identity and salvation, and in acting as portals between the limits of the material and the possibilities of the spiritual world.”

Jerry Root is Associate Professor of French and Comparative Literature in the Department of World Languages and Culture at The University of Utah.

The Rare Books Department has facsimiles of two of the medieval manuscripts Prof. Root worked with for his book.

PSAUTIER D’INGEBURGE DE DANEMARK (INGEBORG PSALTER)
Graz: Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 1985
ND3357 I5 D4 1985

Facsimile. Produced around 1195 in northeastern France, the Ingeborg Psalter is written in Latin with two flyleafs of inscriptions in French. The illuminations in this work represent a turning point in the history of European painting, when artists left behind abstract and highly stylized forms in favor of a more naturalistic representation of the world. The three-dimensional qualities of the figures, their proportions, and their expressive movements stand out as essential innovative elements in the emerging Gothic style of the early 1200’s. The manuscript is named after its first owner, Ingeborg, a Danish princess and spouse of King Philip II of France, who was expelled by her husband for unknown reasons shortly after their wedding. The beginnings of the psalms are rubricated with ornamental initials. Some of the psalms are illuminated with ornate figural initials depicting scenes from the life of David. A large number of elaborate miniatures of a decisively new style and design greatly influenced the art of illumination in the Gothic period. The illuminations depict episodes from the lives of Abraham and Moses, followed by the root of Jesse marking the transition between the Old and New Testaments. Further illuminations are based on themes taken from the life of Christ. Finally, scenes from the legend of Theophilus are depicted. In this popular medieval epic, the sinner Theophilus devotes himself to the Devil and is saved by the Virgin Mary, thus introducing the Faustian motif for the very first time. Bound in embossed leather. Edition of five hundred copies. University of Utah copy is no. 396.

ND3357-J5-D4-1985-pg36spread
Homage to the Devil, Prayer to the Vigin, Retrieval and Return of Contract

DIE LAMBETH APOKALYPSE
Stuttgart: Muller & Schindler, 1990
BS2822.5 L35 M67 1990

Facsimile. This manuscript was likely commissioned by Lady Eleanor de Quincy, Countess of Winchester (ca. 1230-74), daughter of William III, Earl Ferrers of Derby (1200-1254). It was produced circa 1252-67, probably in London. Eleanor is depicted in one of the illuminations that serve as a visual appendix to the book. St. John’s revelatory vision of the end of the world was a popular subject for medieval illustration, given the emotionally powerful images of clashing armies of angels and demons and terrestrial and celestial upheaval evoked by the text. Seventy-eight miniatures include the Dragon being cast into Hell (Rev. 20:9-10) and Christ sitting in Final Judgment (Rev. 20:11-15). The text, in Jerome’s Latin Vulgate, includes extracts from an eleventh century theological commentary on the Book of Revelations. Illuminated Apocalypses were fashionable in England when this manuscript was produced. The commentary was added to ensure that the reader was correctly guided through an understanding of the biblical symbolism. Illuminations helped with this guidance, but they also served as a statement on the owner’s social position. The more lavish the production, the more prominent the owner, or, at least, the more wealthy. The book was intended to educate, but also to entertain.

BS2822.5-L35-M67-1990-pg46recto
Theophilus goes to the Jewish intermediary: pays homage to the Devil

BS2822.5-L35-M67-1990-pg47spread(curves)
Virgin takes back contract, hellmouth; Return of contract

BS2822.5-L35-M67-1990-pg46Verso
Prayer to the Virgin; Virgin consults Christ

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