By the Dictionnaire’s final edition of 1863, the publishers could assure the reader that the “errors” previously highlighted had now been eliminated, the catalogue now fully congruent with Catholic theology. As he labored at subsequent editions, however, the secular folklorist found himself more and more pulled in by the lure of demonology, a passion which would eventually lead him, by the 1830s, to enthusiastically embrace Catholicism. When the Dictionnaire was first published in 1818, Collin de Plancy was a dutiful student of the new rationalism who set out to catalogue what he called “aberrations and germs or causes of errors”. One thing I hope this blog will provide is feedback and assistance from fellow occultophiles out there.Astaroth is a convenient symbol for the oddity of Collin de Plancy’s Dictionnaire, for the demon represents a muddle of cultural forces: rationalism and superstition, systematization and the occult, the Enlightenment and the Romantic movement. I plan on posting occasional updates as progression happens. No translation program is perfect and I’ll need to literally check and double check every word, name, phrase and date to make absolutely sure that what I write is what the original author intended to say. The 1863 edition, though lightly edited down from the 1818 version, contains an additional 500 articles, not to mention those incredible woodcut illos.
The earlier edition contains content that was later edited out after De Plancy was born again. I plan to begin with the 1863 edition then add footnotes to include the 1818 information that was deleted. And so, with the assistance of Google translator I’m attempting a full translation. I know I’m not alone here in trying to find a complete English copy. Both are amazing books, especially the illustrated edition, but both are in the original French language, and French ain’t my thing, baby!. I’ve discovered PDF copies of the complete works from De Plancy’s 1818 edition, as well as the fully illustrated, much coveted 1863 edition.
Though it’s in English, It’s a mere fraction of the complete 800 page work.
The closest I’ve discovered is a 1965 book titled The Witches Dictionary. I’ve been all over the internet looking for an English version of Collin De Plancy’s DICTIONNAIRE INFERNAL.
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