The Devil's Alphabet

Niess, Johann, SJ. Alphabetum Diaboli [...] Editio Sexta.

€ 1,800.00

A highly original alphabetical compendium of vices (from" Amor mundi" and "Blasphemia" to "Voluptas" and "Zoiphilia"), designed to teach young scholars the defence against the dark arts and, as all works of its kind, widely popular as an instructional manual therein. Of linguistic interest is a section on the absurdly ingenious Hebrew etymologies of the Dutch humanist Johannes Goropius Becanus (printed with Hebrew types), inserted under the headword "Temeritas".

This is the second edition to be published independently from the author's "Alphabetum Christi", with which it was repeatedly paired since its first appearance in 1618. This issue is unillustrated save for the remarkable engraved title-page, omitting Sadeler's plates that had graced the first edition.

The Jesuit Johann Niess (1584-1634), a native of Holzen near Augsburg in what is today Bavarian Swabia, entered the Society of Jesus at the age of 20; for 15 years he "taught the art of eloquence and knew to sway human emotions in a curious manner" (Jöcher III, 941).