Dictionnaire Infernal: Rêpertoire Universel des Ètres, des Personnages, des Livres, des Faits et des Choses

Immensely popular in nineteenth-century France, this substantial book went through five editions between 1818 and 1863. It is an A–Z encyclopedia of the occult sciences, listing notable practitioners and books, superstitions, demons, spirits and other phenomena associated with magic, divination, sooth-saying and the supernatural. Its author, the prolific Collin de Plancy (1794–1881), moved to Paris in 1812. He owned a bookshop and speculated in property, a venture which resulted in his exil...