DELRIO, MARTÍN ANTONIO. - Jesuit, exegete, and theologian, born in Antwerp on 17 May 1551, died in Louvain on 19 Oct. 1608.
Of extraordinary erudition and culture, he published, barely twenty years old, his Commentaries on C. Claudiano (Antwerp 1571), followed by those on C. I. Solino (ibid. 1572) and L.A. Seneca (ibid. 1576) and a Miscellanea scriptorum ad universum ius civile (Paris 1580). The same year he entered the Society of Jesus, in which he taught philosophy at Douai, theology and exegesis at Liège, Louvain, Graz, and Salamanca, publishing commentaries on the Song of Songs (Ingolstadt 1604), the Lamentations of Jeremiah (Lyon 1608), Genesis (ibid. 1608), and other literary works.
But his most important work is the Disquisitionum magicarum libri VI (3 vols., Louvain 1599), which was widely read and followed (twenty editions were printed up to 1755). Here, while he displays great erudition—much drawn upon by later writers on demonology and magic—he lacks the necessary critical spirit; he accepts many facts without verifying their authenticity or truthfulness, thus leading to erroneous judgments that proved fatal in the sad and deplorable trials against witches and, in general, against the practice of magic.