The 1863 edition of the “Dictionnaire Infernal” is the stuff of nightmares | Hacker News Reader

The 1863 edition of the “Dictionnaire Infernal” is the stuff of nightmares

atlasobscura.com

137 pointsprismatic48 comments

While the trope of mixing animals with human forms to create demonic images goes back as long as we have had civilization (notable examples from Greeks, Egyptians, and Mesopotamia) - it was Leonardo Da Vinci's notes from "Study of a Dragon" from 1513 that crystalized an important component of the concept:

  If you wish to make your imaginary animal seem natural…take   
  for the head that of a mastiff or a hound, the eyes of a 
  cat, the ears of a porcupine, the nose of a greyhound, the 
  brow of a lion, the temples of an old cock, and the neck of 
  a turtle

Which is to say - if you want to make something terrifying to humans you take known (fearsome) elements and mix them into a previously unknown combination. One strikes that balance of known and unknown.

Truly terrifying things that may exist in the universe at large may not come across as terrifying to us given that we have had no exposure day to day (GRB's, anti-matter, etc).

One of my favorite (possibly apocryphal) anecdotes about this failing is when the Egyptian dynasty under the reign of Thutmose I expanded into Phoenicia (modern day Israel/Syria) they tried bringing their religion with them. During the Middle Kingdom the god of Chaos (and evil) Set was depicted by a Hippo. The Phoenicians were unfamiliar with the animal and in turn had a hard time taking the religion seriously. The religion was not adopted widely outside the Nile valley.

Anyways, here's a fun tool that let's you mix and match various animals to create your own terryfing beast: http://www.universalleonardo.org/playActivity.php?id=525

Who knew porcupine ears would be the stuff of nightmares?

> The Phoenicians were unfamiliar with the animal and in turn had a hard time taking the religion seriously.

Given how incredibly dangerous we know hippos to be now, I find this to be quite amusing. I guess they could look kinda cute in a drawing, but good lord they're not so cute when you're near them and they have something against you.

"if you want to make something terrifying to humans you take known (fearsome) elements and mix them into a previously unknown combination"

Truly, the platypus is a terrifying beast!

Did you know they're actually venomous?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platypus_venom

I did!

> Truly terrifying things that may exist in the universe at large may not come across as terrifying to us given that we have had no exposure day to day (GRB's, anti-matter, etc).

Well... I made the mistake of letting my kid watch a few Kurzgesagt videos on Vacuum Decay and GBR and now she is terrified of Vacuum Decay or GBR wiping us out.

As a kid an episode of Ripley's Believe It Or Not left me convinced I was going to die in a nuclear war before reaching adulthood.

I should see if that episode is on youtube and show it to my kids...

TIL: The palindromic prime number 1000000000000066600000000000001 is known as Belphegor's Prime, due to the significance of containing the number 666, on both sides enclosed by thirteen zeroes and a one.

Fun stuff. I write novels on the side and for a series of pulp supernatural detective books I'm writing I picked up the Lesser Key of Solomon which is a compendium of demons, their ranks in hell, and their specialties. Christian mythology is pretty crazy stuff once you start digging around in it.

Especially when you tie in Gnosticism, it opens up wide.

Less related:

One can even trace a pretty interesting trail of knowledge inheritance from ancient mystery schools, through gnostic traditions in more than one religion, to middle age secret societies, through to the theosophists and magicians like Crowley to modern mens-rights douchebags' ideas of sexual energy conservation and controlling powers inherent.

---

For more texts, this is a great resource: http://www.sacred-texts.com/

Nice! Thanks for the pointer.

Also if you're dabbling in supernatural detective books, I have to assume you're a fan of Douglas Adams? Have you watched the Dirk Gently series on Netflix? I highly recommend it, if not!

Oh shit! I've read the Dirk Gently books, I totally missed that though!

I don't know how much of the stuff associated with ceremonial magic can be called "christian mythology", since most of it was only attested pretty late, between the 15th and 17th centuries, at a time when Christianity was already pretty well established in Europe. Plus, it didn't enjoy widespread currency. Partially because it implied unlawful practices under both Church and local laws. But either way, it's much too restricted to be called a "mythology".

"Christian mythology" would be more along the lines of folk tales concerning the Virgin Mary and the saints, the Tetramorph, the hierarchies of angels and the Great Chain of Being.

The influence of Jewish mysticism was pretty significant, too, to the point that Christian writers would fabricate an old rabbi as the purported "author" of their document. You also got a lot of fake Hebrew scriptures with obvious tells that they were written by Christians. And, of course, sorcery is part of the whole antisemitic complex of stereotypes that was used to oppress Jews in Europe for centuries. It lasted long enough that in 19th century America you get occasional stories of fake Jewish wizards.

Wow, this takes me back to my undergrad days of dabbling in the occult.

If memory serves, an actual copy of Dictionnaire Infernal is ridiculously difficult, and expensive, to track down.

If all you want are the illustrations, you can find them more easily by grabbing a copy of "The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon" for about $20 or so on Amazon.

Maybe the Internet Archive has a digital copy of Dictionnaire Infernal?

The way you do this is you say, "I doubt you can even find copies on the Internet." Then someone is going to take up your challenge :)

https://books.google.com/books?id=bjESAAAAYAAJ&printsec=fron...

Now we just need to find a vendor who will bind an on-demand copy in human skin.

Ahem: "I doubt you can even find that on the Internet."

Maybe now you can ;)

It has, it's even linked to in the article: https://archive.org/details/dictionnaireinfe00coll_1

>an actual copy of Dictionnaire Infernal is ridiculously difficult, and expensive, to track down

? https://www.amazon.com/Dictionnaire-infernal-French-Jacques-...

If you select the hardcover, they are close to $300 usd. Perhaps that is what was meant?

English version in imitation mammal skin $175. https://www.amazon.com/Infernal-Dictionary-Deluxe-Collin-Pla...

That's not the same thing. It has new (terrible) illustrations

If memory serves, an actual copy of Dictionnaire Infernal is ridiculously difficult, and expensive, to track down.

You think that's hard, try finding an early edition of the Necronomicon. The cheap paperbacks are a poor substitution, and the Kindle version is rife with errors.

I wonder how much Lovecraft was influenced by writings like this one. Creatures like 'Tsatoghua' and 'Azathoth' might be inspired by the depiction of 'Bael', 'Adramelech' and the likes.

Oh and by the way, with 'Necronomicon' you mean this this one [0]? I have one as paperback (I didn't even realized Hardcovers existed, up until now). Giger was always one of my favourite painters. I bet in a couple of decades, people will wonder about his images as we are wondering about Plancys Dictionnaire now.

[0]: https://www.amazon.com/H-R-Gigers-Necronomicon-Giger/dp/0962...

Lovecraft was more directly influenced by writers like Robert Chambers ("The King In Yellow") and Ambrose Bierce ("An Inhabitant Of Carcosa"). And the beings he describe tend to be completely alien, unlike the natural chimeras in the Dictionnaire Infernal and similar works. Even the tentacles and such which are familiar on Lovecraftian horrors tend to be described in ways that distinguish them from the familiar appendages of squids and such.

I always find works like the Dictionarire Infernal to be a fascinating trip down a rabbit hole. It's not even a compilation of folk demons (although I'm sure some appear in here), as much as it's an earnest D&D Monster Manual, or editing Wookiepedia. It's hard to imagine if I was writing it taking it as anything more than escapism.

Of course the flip side of this book is De Coelesti Hierarchia, which defines angelology with a hierarchy and different types to closely mimic contemporary feudal society. ("How can you have a kingdom, without a minor land barons? Let's make some up!")

If it was just scholarship that something, but it's no even that, it's more pseudo-scholarship.

Religion is a hell of a drug.

To be honest, occultism is less religion and more straight superstition. Which is why it was generally shunned or outlawed even when religious authorities were in charge.

I feel the author would have been in his element playing Dwarf Fortress.

The forgotten beast Asmodeus has come! A great centaur. It has a pair of dragon-like wings and it squirms and fidgets. Beware its deadly dust!

There's a lot of stuff in there too besides the illustrations --- interesting to read a little bit of it. I'm not any expert on this stuff --- are all the demons from folklore or of the author's creation?

(Oh, and, yes, it's in French, for those who don't speak it)

It makes me wonder if the author and artists actually believed they were documenting real-world phenomena. Did they treat this as fiction or non-fiction?

It strikes me as daemon porn.

Most of these "occult" books are traditionally a bit of both: an author might take a well-known name (e.g. Belfagor) from folk tradition, and then straight-up invent most of what he actually writes.

Note that, at certain points in time, wealthy European rulers were very interested in this kind of material, as they sought to gain any advantage they could to stabilize their dominance in unruly times. People with narrative skills had huge incentives to manufacture material that such rulers could find plausible or intriguing, in order to obtain money and privileges. Hence most "occult" material is not coming from folk tradition.

This also explains why the subculture often reveres "The Book" as a primary actor in the actual stories: the cursed book of evil spells, the lost tome with alchemist recipes, the damned catalogue of demons... it was an industry blowing its own horn, so to speak. Folk stories are much more likely to bestow supernatural qualities to simple everyday items.

One could possibly draw some kind of conclusion about the way many of the illustrations look to be traditionally mocking Jewish caricatures.

I think it is the other way around. Many known Jewish caricatures were taken directly from this book.

I think GP shares your opinion and was noticing the similarity between the illustrations and modern anti-semetic caricatures.

Is it my imagination or does the demon ruler Bael have the face of a Rothschild? I wonder if these drawings have some hidden political protest meaning...

Compare them to the political cartoons of the same era.

I'm pretty sure Andras, at least, is in Persona 5. It's interesting how the cultural influence of something like this is still with us.

As you might know, most (all?) of SMT/Persona demons are from somewhere. It's actually a pretty cool idea - the creatures may be familiar but Atlus can give them their own spin.

You might recognize this guy: http://i.imgur.com/tonkSbq.jpg

Arahabaki! It's amazing how easy it is to remember the names of 100+ demons.

The Shin Megami Tensei and Persona series just might be the "Carmen Sandiego" of demonology.

And mythology in general. Really, the only religious figures I can think of that they never put in a SMT game are ones who are (purportedly) actual people -- Jesus, Mary, Zoroaster, Buddha, etc. Otherwise, it's open season. Although in later games they've pumped the brakes a little on having the God of Abraham as the final boss and such.

Definitely more than just Andras -- some other demons from the Goetia are present.

Heh, this takes me back, due to the "Slayers" anime series. Although it looks a bit like a juvenile history (fantasy, magic, demons), the background story takes a lot from Ars Goetia, like the demons' seals and whatnot. A huge wikipedia rabbit hole :)

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