Articles

The Library's unique collections are a treasure chest of unusual, interesting and sometimes surprising material just waiting to be found. This anthology, written by the Editor, is based on an eclectic selection of our archive. The author asserts her copyright on all material on the Priaulx Library website except where copyright of other authors is expressly notified. Permission to reproduce material from this website and full attribution to the author is required in all cases.

Witchcraft & Folklore

Elie Brevint on witchcraft

Detail of torment by touch, Perier 1724, Priaulx Library Collection

Elie Brevint (1587-1674) was minister of Sark from 1612. His father Cosmé, also a minister, was a Huguenot refugee from Angoulême who had accompanied Helier De Carteret from Jersey in his colonisation of Sark. Transcriptions and microfilm of Elie's 14 Notebooks, which were found in a loft in Sark in the 19th century, are held in the Priaulx Library. Elie appears to be a sensible and rational man with a curious and detached mind, until he turns to these sorts of subject: the Pousseresse, perturbateurs, and salamanders. The illustration is of the Tormento do Tacto, or Torture, from Alexander Périer's O Desengano dos Pecadores of 1724, in the Library.

Guernsey Folk Lore

Edgar MacCulloch from the Priaulx Library Collection

Guernsey Folk Lore, by Edgar MacCulloch, ed. Edith Carey, 1906: London: Elliot Stock, Guernsey: F. Clarke, States Arcade.

Fairy wells, by Victor Coysh

From his Random Notes. La Fontaine des Faies and Le Gibet des Faies.

Pouliche and paen-paen

A translation of the entry for 'pouliche' in George Metivier's Norman-French Dictionary, from the Guernsey Magazine, January 1884; and another little rhyme.

The witch and the raven: The life of Helier Fautrart, by John Quick, ed. E.P. Le Feuvre

Icones Sacrae Gallicanae et Anglicanae was compiled by John Quick, a Presbyterian clergyman who was born in Plymouth in 1636. Helier Fautrart's life as Rector of St Peter Port Church is one of the biographies of fifty 'French divines' he gathered together in his first work; he followed this with twenty English ministers. He has, however, conflated the life of Helier, who ministered in Jersey, with that of his son, Daniel, who became minister of the Town Church in Guernsey in 1633. This volume includes a fascinating witchy tale.

La Magie naturelle: Grimoires

Les secrets des secrets, tete de mort parlante from Priaulx Library collection

Grimoires are books of household magic. Two in particular, Le Grand Albert and Le Petit Albert, were enormously popular in France throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. A curious mixture of esoteric science and totally impractical superstition, they were for some time tolerated by the Church, with whose teachings they sat uneasily, but were prized by the ordinary people who tried valiantly to reconcile their belief in Christianity with their fear, or hope, that 'natural' magic might just have the power to overcome nature itself.

New books 2009

Biberach, Guernsey Business Law, Witchcraft, Guernsey Merchants

New Year in Guernsey

Once upon a time Guernsey's biggest party day.

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