Reviews and Awards
"[A] tour de force. It sheds new light on the career of the Spanish-Flemish Jesuit, Martin Delrio....Machielsen's emphasis on Delrio's self-fashioning strategies and his meticulous reconstruction of Delrio's trajectory as a Spanish subject who himself participated in the political context of the Low Countries during the Eighty Years' War (1568-1648) is a major contribution. Machielsen's book is, above all, a significant history of Counter-Reformation scholarly culture. Through a dynamic portrait, Machielsen explains how Delrio transitioned from being a humanist expert in classics to a demonologist seeking fame as a Jesuit theologian....In analyzing Delrio's life and work, Machielsen finds an original and convincing way to consider how Counter-Reformation scholarship contributed significantly to late Renaissance textual criticism, historiography, and politics."--Fabien Montcher, Erudition and the Republic of Letters
"[T]his is a book every student of the religious and intellectual history of Europe should read and read again. It is a consummate work of illumination."--P. G. Maxwell-Stuart, Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft
"[T]his admirable study will be of interest to a wide range of scholars beyond the witchcraft specialists."--Church History and Religious Culture
"Martin Delrio: Demonology and Scholarship in the Counter-Reformation is a major scholarly achievement and a book that it is difficult to praise too highly for the scope of its engagement with all aspects of Delrio's work....It is difficult to imagine Machielsen's book ever being surpassed as the definitive biography of Martin Delrio, but beyond this, it is also a book that ought to be read by all scholars of the Counter-Reformation..."--Reviews in History
"This is an outstanding and important book....In connecting the dots and presenting a multifaceted Delrio, Machielsen reminds us of both the coherence and the varieties of early modern Catholic scholarship."--Journal of Jesuit Studies
"Some fifteen years ago I suggested that Delrio needed a full biography, and here it is at last, done so well and with such meticulous scholarship, acute insight, and remarkable flair that it is unlikely ever to need replacement."--Renaissance Quarterly
