Collin de Plancy

Jacques Collin de Plancy
Illustration from Diable peint par lui-même (1825) depicting Collin de Plancy, reclining on his bed, having a discussion with the devil
Born	January 28, 1793 Plancy-l'Abbaye, France
Died	1881 (aged 87-88) Paris, France
Occupation	Occultist, author, demonologist
Nationality	French
Genre	Occultism, Demonology
Literary movement	Occultism, Fantastique

Jacques Albin Simon Collin de Plancy (28 January 1793 in Plancy-l'Abbaye – 1881 in Paris) was a French occultist, demonologist and writer; he published several works on occultism and demonology.

He was born Jacques Albin Simon Collin on 28 (in some sources 30) January 1793 in Plancy (presently Plancy-l'Abbaye) son of Edme-Aubin Collin and Marie-Anne Danton, sister of Georges-Jacques Danton who was executed the year after Jacques was born. He later added the aristocratic "de Plancy" himself - an addition which would later cause accusations against his son in his career as a diplomat. He was a free-thinker influenced by Voltaire. He worked as a printer and publisher in Plancy-l'Abbaye and Paris. Between 1830 and 1837, he resided in Brussels, and then in the Netherlands, before he returned to France after having converted to the Catholic religion.

Collin de Plancy followed the tradition of many previous demonologists of cataloguing demons by name and title of nobility, as it happened with grimoires like Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, and The Lesser Key of Solomon among others. In 1818 his best known work, Dictionnaire Infernal, was published. In 1863 were added some images that made it famous: imaginative drawings concerning the appearance of certain demons. In 1822 it was advertised as:

It is considered a major work documenting beings, characters, books, deeds and causes which pertain to the manifestations and magic of trafficking with Hell; divinations, occult sciences, grimoires, marvels, errors, prejudices, traditions, folktales, the various superstitions, and generally all manner of marvellous, surprising, mysterious, and supernatural beliefs.

By the end of 1830 he ostensibly became an enthusiastic Catholic — to the confusion of his former admirers and detractors.

In 1846, he published a two-volume work entitled Dictionnaire Sciences Occultes et des Idées superstitieuses, another listing of demons. The set cost 16 francs.