Delrio, Martín Antonio

DELRIO, MARTÍN ANTONIO. - Jesuit, exegete and theologian, b. at Antwerp on 17 May 1551, d. at Louvain on 19 Oct. 1608.

Of extraordinary erudition and culture, he published, when barely twenty years old, his Commentaries on Claudian (Antwerp 1571), which were followed by those on Solinus (ibid. 1572) and on Seneca (ibid. 1576) and a Miscellanea scriptorum ad universum ius civile (Paris 1580). In the same year he entered the Society of Jesus, in which he taught philosophy at Douai, theology and exegesis at Liège, Louvain, Graz, Salamanca, publishing commentaries on the Song of Songs (Ingolstadt 1604), the Lamentations of Jeremiah (Lyons 1608), Genesis (ibid. 1608) and other literary works.

But his most important work is Disquisitionum magicarum libri VI (3 vols., Louvain 1599), widely read and followed (20 editions were produced up to 1755). Here, while he brings great erudition, to which later writers on demonology and magic abundantly drew, he does not however display the necessary critical spirit; he accepts many facts without sifting either their authenticity or their truthfulness, thus leading to erroneous judgments, which proved fatal in the sad and deplorable trials against witches and in general against the art of magic.

Celestino Testore