LE LOYER (Pierre). IIII livres des spectres ou apparitions et visions d'esprits, anges et demons se monstrans sensiblement aux hommes. Angers, [Georges Nepveu], and Paris, Gabriel Buon, 1586. 2 volumes in one small in-4, brown calf, spine decorated, red edges (17th century binding). Extremely rare first edition of the most important French work on spectres and ghosts. The first volume bears the address and imprint of Gabriel Buon and the second that of Georges Nepveu, the Parisian bookseller and Angevin printer having shared the cost of the edition. Specialised bibliographies generally list only the second edition of this work, in eight books, published in 1605 and republished in 1608 by Nicolas Buon. This extreme rarity used to be explained by the fact that the author's home was burnt down, destroying all his possessions, until Paul Lacroix suggested that "a nineteenth-century amateur burnt the copies he could get his hands on in order to combat the occult influence of this book" (Bulletin du bibliophile, 1861, p. 228). "This work enjoys a well-deserved success with collectors and is as famous as P. de Lancre's work on sorcerers and demons," noted Stanislas de Guaita. Its author, Pierre Le Loyer (1550-1634), was a councillor at the Presidial Court of Angers. His ambition was certainly to demonstrate the existence of immaterial beings, against the opinion of certain philosophers, but also to build a genuine science of spectres, which he distinguished from visions and ghosts. There is a great deal of erudition in this work, which contains a host of singular and curious facts on demonology, witchcraft and spiritualism, as well as esotericism, alchemy, astrology, prodigies, etc. Corners worn, minor rubbing, wetness at head of first few leaves. Guaita, n°480 - Brunet, III, 959 - Bibl. Bechtel, n°197 - Caillet, n°6456 (2nd ed.) - Dorbon n°2589 (2nd ed.) - Yve-Plessis n°391 (2nd ed.).