Traité sur les apparitions des esprits et sur les vampires ou de revnants. A 1700's treatise surfaced two centuries ago regarding the supernatural and scientific phenomenon that plagued Europe in an era when Magic, witchcraft, instances of haunting, and even cases of vampires were recorded in judicial and imperial documentation. It was during the age of reason when a Black Monk from the Benedictine Order of the 18th century, penned a work that would become one of the most influential and controversial works of his time. A plethora of cases regarding events in the supernatural had plagued mankind with fear and mystery throughout history, many inhabitants to the regions of Europe came under an epidemic of social hysteria which stemmed from reports of corpses rising from their graves, killing and sucking the blood of victims inhabiting small villages or visitations and the haunting of ghosts, evil spirits and demons. The Black Monk, Abbot Don Augustin Calmet tasked himself with the study of these real and historically documented reports for the purpose of providing the public with the rules to determine a claim's legitimacy through philosophical reasoning of religious and scientific examination that was approved by the King of France in 1746. This work provides an in-depth look into the history of most superstitions, mythologies, and the analysis of events depicted in the ancient texts of various religions and historically renowned cases. Calmet lays out the rules for determining the fraudulence of purported claims and distinguishes them from what may soundly be considered real at the time, providing a "how to" manual when dealing with or investigating occult matters in witchcraft, ghosts, vampires and demonic possessions. This new edition includes translations from the French and Italian works that are being published for the first time! Including the missing letters, detailed notes, definitions, and translations of Latin, Italian and French phrases quotes and citations.

A treatise of a 1700's abbot monk Augustin Calmet surfaced two centuries ago regarding the supernatural and scientific phenomenon that plagued Europe in an era when Magic, witchcraft, demonology, instances of haunting and even cases of vampires were recorded in historical documentation. It was during the age of reason when a Black Monk from the Benedictine Order of the 18th century, penned a work that would become one of the most influential and controversial works of his time. A plethora of cases regarding events in the supernatural had plagued mankind with fear and mystery throughout history, many inhabitants to the regions of Europe came under an epidemic of social hysteria which steamed from reports of corpses rising from their graves, killing and sucking the blood of victims inhabiting small villages or visitations and the haunting of ghosts, evil spirits and demons. The Black Monk, Abbot Don Augustin Calmet tasked himself with the study of these real and historically documented reports for the purpose of providing the public with the rules to determine a claim's legitimacy through philosophical reasoning and scientific examination that was approved by the King of France in 1746. This work provides an in depth look into the history of most superstitions, mythologies, the analysis of events depicted in ancient texts from various religions and historically renowned cases which had in fact occurred. Calmet lays out the rules for determining the fraudulent claims from the real while also providing a "how to" manual when dealing with or investigating occult matters in witchcraft, ghosts, vampires and demonic possessions. Keep in mind that this work was written by an ordained abbot monk and was accepted by European society as scientific research in his time. This new edition includes translations from the French and Italian works that are being published for the first time! Including the missing letters, detailed notes definitions, and translations of Latin, Italian and French phrases quotes and citations This treatise investigates a number of topics From Volume 1 * Angelic and demonic intervention; * The reality and mythology of magic; divination; curses; * Understanding the difference between real accounts vs that of impostors; * Examples and instances of real possessions caused by the devil; * The power and authority which Satan and demons possess; * False prophets and predictions of happenstance; * The appearance and examinations of specters and pretended specters * Examinations on Specters that haunt houses; * The dead who return to the earth; * Explanations and objections on the instances of apparitions; * The studies on Familiars; Elves; * The secrets of physics and chemistry taken as supernatural things. Also included from volume 2 * Resurrection of the dead; * Instances of people returning from the grave; * Examination to people being buried alive but thought to be dead; * Examinations of (then) modern revenants, ghosts and vampires; * The study of vampires, ghosts in mythology and religions; * Historically recorded accounts of vampires between the 17th and 18th centuries; * Examinations on bodies that do not decay and corpses that show life after death; * The power of demons to kill and restore life; * On the excommunicated and events of their return; * Instances of bodies that devour their own flesh in their graves; * Instances on exhumed bodies and their examinations after reported vampirism. * Analysis on whether vampires or revenants are truly dead; * Instances of people returning from the grave months after declared deceased; Volumes are outlined as follows: VOL I DISSERTATION ON THE APPEARANCE OF ANGELS THE APPEARANCE OF DEMONS THE APPARITIONS OF THE SOULS OF THE DEAD THE APPEARANCE OF THE LIVING AS PROJECTIONS & MAGIC, WITCHES, WIZARDS, ORACLES, POSSESSIONS, ETC. VOL II DISSERTATION ON THE GHOSTS WHO RETURN TO THE EARTHLY BODY, THE EXCOMMUNICATED, THE OUPIRES OR VAMPIRES, VROUCOLACAS, ETC.

The Land Between Two Seas: Art on the Move in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea 1300-1700 focuses on the strong riverine ties that connect the seas of the Mediterranean system (from the Western Mediterranean through the Sea of Marmara, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov) and their hinterland. Addressing the mediating role of the Balkans between East and West all the way to Poland and Lithuania, as well as this region’s contribution to the larger Mediterranean artistic and cultural melting pot, this innovative volume explores ideas, artworks and stories that moved through these territories linking the cultures of Central Asia with those of western Europe.

From controversial cryptozoologist and explorer Dr. Veronica Wigberht-Blackwater, The Compendium of Magical Beasts is a definitive field guide that explores the history, biology, and anatomy of mythological creatures. Approaching the fantastic with a scientific eye, Dr. Wigberht-Blackwater explains the history, habits, and biology of each creature's existence with equal attention to detail. Her research is accompanied by stunning scientific illustrations of each specimen's anatomy, providing a comprehensive view of creatures most often dismissed as pure fantasy. Combining biological fact with folklore, cultural studies, and history, this volume is crucial to science both fringe and mainstream. Locked in a dusty attic for almost a century, Dr. Wigberht-Blackwater's trailblazing work was recently discovered by writer Melissa Brinks, who spent months transcribing the journals she found. Brinks joined forces with artist Lily Seika Jones to digitize the doctor's amazingly detailed anatomical diagrams in order to share these revolutionary findings with the world for the first time. The Bestiary: Mermaid, Unicorn, Wild Man, Gnome, Werewolf, Troll, Fairy, Jackalope, Winged Horse, Centaur, Minotaur, Vampire, Dragon, Sea Monsters/Loch Ness/Kraken, Goblin, Sphinx, Phoenix, Harpy, Cyclops, Banshee, Incubus/Succubus, Nymph, Ghoul, Selkie, Kelpie

Vampires is your beautifully illustrated mystical guide to the undead and their lore throughout the centuries.

Two centuries after its original publication, Mary Shelley’s classic tale of gothic horror comes to vivid life in "what may very well be the best presentation of the novel" to date (Guillermo del Toro). "Remarkably, a nineteen-year-old, writing her first novel, penned a tale that combines tragedy, morality, social commentary, and a thoughtful examination of the very nature of knowledge," writes best-selling author Leslie S. Klinger in his foreword to The New Annotated Frankenstein. Despite its undeniable status as one of the most influential works of fiction ever written, Mary Shelley’s novel is often reductively dismissed as the wellspring for tacky monster films or as a cautionary tale about experimental science gone haywire. Now, two centuries after the first publication of Frankenstein, Klinger revives Shelley’s gothic masterpiece by reproducing her original text with the most lavishly illustrated and comprehensively annotated edition to date. Featuring over 200 illustrations and nearly 1,000 annotations, this sumptuous volume recaptures Shelley’s early nineteenth-century world with historical precision and imaginative breadth, tracing the social and political roots of the author’s revolutionary brand of Romanticism. Braiding together decades of scholarship with his own keen insights, Klinger recounts Frankenstein’s indelible contributions to the realms of science fiction, feminist theory, and modern intellectual history—not to mention film history and popular culture. The result of Klinger’s exhaustive research is a multifaceted portrait of one of Western literature’s most divinely gifted prodigies, a young novelist who defied her era’s restrictions on female ambitions by independently supporting herself and her children as a writer and editor. Born in a world of men in the midst of a political and an emerging industrial revolution, Shelley crafted a horror story that, beyond its incisive commentary on her own milieu, is widely recognized as the first work of science fiction. The daughter of a pioneering feminist and an Enlightenment philosopher, Shelley lived and wrote at the center of British Romanticism, the “exuberant, young movement” that rebelled against tradition and reason and "with a rebellious scream gave birth to a world of gods and monsters" (del Toro). Following his best-selling The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft and The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, Klinger not only considers Shelley’s original 1818 text but, for the first time in any annotated volume, traces the effects of her significant revisions in the 1823 and 1831 editions. With an afterword by renowned literary scholar Anne K. Mellor, The New Annotated Frankenstein celebrates the prescient genius and undying legacy of the world’s "first truly modern myth." The New Annotated Frankenstein includes: Nearly 1,000 notes that provide information and historical context on every aspect of Frankenstein and of Mary Shelley’s life Over 200 illustrations, including original artwork from the 1831 edition and dozens of photographs of real-world locations that appear in the novel Extensive listings of films and theatrical adaptations An introduction by Guillermo del Toro and an afterword by Anne K. Mellor

Thousands of thrilling facts and trivia from murderous cults to UFOs! Did you know legendary skyjacker D. B. Cooper was most likely a Boeing employee? How about the fact that the Manson Family’s killing spree was meant to incite racial rioting? Or that rather than arriving from outer space, UFOs have been operating from deep within Earth’s oceans for centuries? Learn true, confidential information about these and other—even stranger!—subjects in this mammoth volume. With mind-boggling facts from the most varied sources, find out all about monsters, magic bullets, and mass hysteria, in five unsinkable chapters: • Puzzling Places • Befuddling Beliefs • Strange Subcultures • Peculiar People • Mystifying Mysteries Whether you’re interested in conspiracies, ghosts, lucha libre, or the Bermuda Triangle, there is an anti-boredom list, entry, or chronology for everyone in this freakishly huge toilet (or travel) companion. Plunge into the Bizarre Bathroom Reader to find answers to all of those lifelong questions you may have! Featuring interviews with Elizabeth Gracen, J. M. DeMatteis, John H. Newton, Bruce A. Smith, and Preston Dennett!