Description
When a plague of mass sudden death devastated a small rural village on the borders of Hungary and Turkish Serbia in 1725, a grave was exhumed of a man named Peter Plogojowitz who was found to be without decay after 10 weeks of burial. A report from an imperial official described various strange phenomena that alleged signs of life, prompting a swift execution of the dead to end the maleficent plague affecting the living. Magister Michael Ranft was a deacon who sought to determine whether the phenomena described in the report of this so-called Vampyre were of a Godly miracle, a demonic witchcraft, or if they fell within the most hidden fabric of natural philosophy. This nearly 300-page work is considered among the most important and earliest comprehensive studies of human decay, disease, and their relation to the occult or hidden qualities of nature of the time. Ranft takes on a philosophical approach to apparitions and the perceived specters of the dead. He determines whether the occult quality of sympathy and antipathy could be applied to this case, analyzes other historical narratives where the exhumed dead were found to eat upon their own burial garments and limbs within the confines of their graves, and investigates the purported animation of the dead and the plague which was blamed on their malignant effect upon the living through principles of theology and natural philosophy.
Details
Publisher - Esoterica Press
Language - English
Perfect Bound
Contributors
By author
Michael Ranft
Brett Warren
Published Date - 2026-03-31
ISBN - 9781952658211
Dimensions - 19.4 x 12.2 x 1.8 cm
Page Count - 322
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