The Book of Dom Calmet

The Abbot Antoine Augustin Calmet, a Benedictine monk and Lorraine scholar in the 18th century, published two volumes of a book, “Treatise on the Apparitions of Spirits, and on Vampires or Revenants of Hungary, Moravia, et al.”

The book was about extensive investigations into the occult, angels, demons, and other types of spiritual entities.

Originally published in French in 1746 under a slightly different title, it was translated into German, Italian, and English.

There were dissertations in it on  magic, sorcery, and witchcraft, and cases of vampires, revenants, and people coming back from the grave.

The book studied accounts of these sightings mentioned in the Bible, in mythology, in cultural legends, and in well-known anecdotes and documented cases of them in history.

After a lot of praise from readers, the book was expanded and published again with “Privilege of the King of France” in 1751 under its new title. This version included letters and dissertations by some of his readers and extra chapters responding to refutations and other claims.

The whole book consisted of 115 chapters and the dissertation was in four parts:

1) a section on good angels.

2) The appearance of bad angels.

3) The apparitions of souls of the dead.

4) The appearance of living men to others still alive, absent, distant, (and unknown to those who appeared).

The book sometimes included research on magic, wizards and witches, on Sabbats, oracles, obsession, and possession by demons.

Calmet utilised a scientific approach when looking at pre-modern cases of witchcraft, vampires, superstition and other things occult. He delved into biology, psychology, chemistry, and etymology and investigated the history of legends and folklore to prove whether claims of hauntings or magic were true or fabricated.

In the first volume’s 52 chapters, there were sections on:

– angelic and demonic intervention / interference

– the history, reality, and myths of magic, curses, and divination

– how to work out the difference between true accounts and false ones

– examples of real possessions by the Devil

– the powers of Satan and other demons

– false prophets and predictions

– the appearances and investigations of ghosts and fake ghosts

– a section on haunted houses

– a section on the return of the Dead

– explanations and refutations on cases of ghostly encounters

– studies on familiars and elves

– secrets of physics, chemistry, and alchemy that were mistaken for supernatural things.

Volume Two had 63 chapters on:

– resurrection of the Dead

– examples of people coming back from the grave

– an examination of people thought to be dead but were buried alive

– accounts of vampires, ghosts, and revenants in history

– vampires and ghosts in classical myths and religion

– accounts of vampires in history between the 17th and 18th centuries

– examinations on non-decaying corpses and bodies showing “life after death”.

– the power of demons to kill or restore lives

– on the return of the excommunicated

– cases of bodies that “ate” their own flesh

– exhumation and examination of bodies

– analysis on whether or not vampires and revenants were actually dead

– cases of people coming back from the grave months after they had passed away.

There was some correspondence included at the end of the book, some letters of approval, but there was also a letter from the Marquis of Maffei that was in itself a dissertation on the study of magic, which went on for sixteen chapters!

Dom Calmet’s book is a similar idea to the Book of Nighthunting in The Nighthunter series:

The Book of Nighthunting is a guide that all Nighthunters carry with them (usually) and consult when faced with a type of Ghost or Witch they’re not sure how to deal with. Their apprentices are taught about the different species of Ghosts from its pages and the strengths and weaknesses of each type.

Logan Bartholom, one of the last Nighthunters remaining, does not have this book on his person (or any knowledge of it) in A Dark Heritage due to his Ghost-induced amnesia and tendency to wander between worlds, but in the second book perhaps he might be reunited with this tome…

Next time we will delve into what Dom Calmet had to say about vampires.