Nicholas Eymerich, Two Treatises Against Astrologers, Nigromancers and Alchemists / Contra astrologos imperitos atque contra nigromanticos de occultis perperam iudicantes & Contra alchimistas (éd. Sylvain Matton)

Critical edition with introduction, translation and notes by Sylvain Matton

Appointed Inquisitor General of the Crown of Aragon in 1357, famous for his huge Directorium Inquisitorum (1376), which was to become the procedural handbook for the Spanish Inquisition until the seven­teenth century, the Dominican friar Nicholas Eymerich (ca. 1317-1399) stood out for his diligence, his severity and his inflexibility in the exercise of his office. But his eagerness and relentlessness to hunt down all those he dee­med heretical, especially the Fraticelli, Beguards and Lullists, so angered King John I of Aragon that in April 1393 he was sentenced to exile. Yet this did not dampen his zeal, which he directed towards writing. Indeed, having found refuge at the papal court in Avignon, he wrote there in 1395 and 1396 Against Ignorant Astrologers and Against Nigromancers Who Wrongly Judge of Hidden Things and Against Alchemists, two treatises which are his ulti­ma verba on the subject, and in which he endeavours to demonstrate that both astrology and divinatory arts as well as alchemy savour of heresy because they are grounded or fatally end in a covenant with the devil, and therefore fall under the inquisitorial jurisdiction.

Contents

Introduction           
Contra astrologos imperitos atque contra nigromanticos de occultis perperam iudicantes (Against Ignorant Astrologers and Against Nigromancers Who Wron­gly Judge of Hidden Things)
Contra alchimistas (Against Alchemists)           
Notes on Against Astrologos and Nigromancers
Appendix : De iurisdictione inquisitorum in et contra christianos démo­nes inuocantes (On the Jurisdiction of Inquisitors Over and Against Christians Who Invoke Demons), p. IV, c. III, d. IV.
Notes on Against Alchemists
Index of names 
Index of biblical citations