Ludovico Maria Sinistrari’s De Daemonialitate and its Transmission in Manuscript and Print

This study examines the transmission of Ludovico Maria Sinistrari’s De Daemonialitate in light of previously unexamined manuscripts and archival material that bear upon issues of authenticity, manuscript circulation, and reception. New material pertaining to the Liseux manuscript is examined which should help dispel the widely spread notion of a bibliographical hoax perpetuated by Isidore Liseux or Paul Lacroix. An analysis of Liseux’s transcription in relation to six other extant manuscripts demonstrates that it is not based on Sinistrari’s holograph MS but rather a later witness with several notable textual corruptions. A preliminary stemma codicum is suggested based on an examination of all extant MSS and the Daemonialitas text from the Albrizzi and Gianni editions of De Delictis et Poenis. On the basis of the evidence reviewed in this study the argument is made that the most plausible explanation for the expurgation of De Daemonialitate is Sinistrari’s advocacy of suffumigation...Show moreThis study examines the transmission of Ludovico Maria Sinistrari’s De Daemonialitate in light of previously unexamined manuscripts and archival material that bear upon issues of authenticity, manuscript circulation, and reception. New material pertaining to the Liseux manuscript is examined which should help dispel the widely spread notion of a bibliographical hoax perpetuated by Isidore Liseux or Paul Lacroix. An analysis of Liseux’s transcription in relation to six other extant manuscripts demonstrates that it is not based on Sinistrari’s holograph MS but rather a later witness with several notable textual corruptions. A preliminary stemma codicum is suggested based on an examination of all extant MSS and the Daemonialitas text from the Albrizzi and Gianni editions of De Delictis et Poenis. On the basis of the evidence reviewed in this study the argument is made that the most plausible explanation for the expurgation of De Daemonialitate is Sinistrari’s advocacy of suffumigation over the approved ceremonies of the Roman Rituale and his arguments against the limits of ecclesiastical authority and scripture when it comes to the question of the existence of incubi and succubi. This study proves that despite the forty-five year prohibition of Sinistrari’s De Delictis et Poenis, the Daemonialitate manuscript was still clandestinely circulated amongst monks of the Franciscan order. The later legacy of De Daemonialitate is also considered through an examination of all print editions from 1875-1927.Show less

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Ludovico Maria Sinistrari’s De Daemonialitate and its Transmission in Manuscript and Print