Alexis-Vincent-Charles Berbiguier de Terre-Neuve du Thym
Alexis-Vincent-Charles Berbiguier (1765-1851) was an author and demonologist, best known for his three-volume, 850-page autobiographical memoir, Les farfadets ou Tous les démons ne sont pas de l’autre monde (The Goblins; or, Not All Demons are From the Other World). He was born and died in Carpentras, in southern France, though much of the “action” of Les farfadets (to stretch that word to its breaking point) takes place in Paris. He was born to a family with some wealth, legal wranglings being one of the plot points of the first volume, and at least some of his inheritance was dedicated to publishing his memoir.
One of the most interesting things about Berbiguier’s memoir…is that it isn’t. More celebrated autobiographical memoirs give us a taste of the life and country of the author, a trip into a historical past. Berbiguier had seen the French revolution, Imperial France under Napolean, and the restoration of Louis XVIII, but none of those get much of a nod in the text. Instead, Les farfadets primarily focuses on Berbiguier’s muddled relationship with his neighbors, who seem to be a group of 20something hipsters who have convinced Berbiguier that, not only are they infernal sorcerers, but that he is under their power until they can break the spell. Some of them seem to want to stretch the joke to its breaking point, some of them have some amount of pity for the old man. The bulk of Les farfadets describes Berbiguier’s ping-ponging between hope for his cure, pessimism that he’ll ever receive it, and his own ruminations on the divine and the occult.
Perhaps Berbiguier found some relief from his own demons. He destroyed every copy he could of his memoir, though this might have been an effort to protect himself from the farfedets, it’s hard to say. But the book may have some outsized influence on demonology and the occult. He was something of an outsider art celebrity and the model of the “literary madman.” Ironic appreciation is not a 20th century invention. And Berbiguier’s strange ideas of the courts of hell, fed by his neighbors and 18th century occult writing, may have co-evolved with the Dictionairre Infernal. And the incredibly popular Dictionairre is a treasure trove of occultism, which itself may have informed Arthur Edward Waite, who attributed its strange demonic hierarchies to Johann Weyer, 16th century physician and grandfather of both psychiatry and Goetic demonology in an unusual bit of time-travel demonology.
Join us as we explore Berbiguier’s life, story, and influence.
AI-created image based on Berbiguer’s portrait from Les farfadets
Berbliography
Works
Les Farfadets, archive.org: Vol. 1 Vol. 2 Vol. 3
Also available on Gallica.bnf.fr archive, a higher quality scan but not easily converted to text formats. This site is a historical archive of French ephemera, and has a number of contemporary articles touching on M.B., and the editor will be mining it as time permits! Vol. 1 Vol. 2 Vol. 3
Biography
Clervoy, Patrick, Petits moments d’historie de la psychiatrie en France, 2006 (Short essays on psychology and spirituality in France, with a passage on Berbiguier discussing his psychology, some biographical details)
Mauron, Marie, Berbiguier de Carpentras, 1979 (at 230 pages, likely the largest resource specifically devoted to M.B.; the book in part celebrates a Carpentras folk hero, and the complex occult/revolutionary history of the region, then appears to summarize and annotate Les farfadets, with cultural context and some first-person sources.)
“Thauront”, Geneanet.org, M. Berbiguier family tree
Essays
Belanger, Michelle: “The Dictionary of Demons: The Search for the Grand Pantler of Hell“, 2010
De Givry, Grillot: “Involuntary Demoniacs,” Witchcraft, Magic and Alchemy, 1931. (Pages 141-146 discusses M.B’s life, art, and torments.)
De Plancy, Collins: Excerpts from Dictionairre Infernal, including 1825 edition
Gélinas, Ariane, “Fléau des farfadets,” Postures Revue – Critique Literaire. (Discusses Berbiguer’s mental health, the sexuality underlying Farfadets, his persecution and self-martyrdom, and is a positive and eloquent review of the text.)
Gelinas, “Intertextualite et pacte dibolique dans Les F[…]”, 2012 (on Berbiguier, the Mazarin Circle, and ideas of the demonic pact)
Introvigne, Massimo: “An Epidemic of Anti-Satanism, 1821-1870”, Satanism: A Social History, 2016 (Discusses the occult context of Farfadets, the work’s reception, and summaries of the text and M.B’s occult methods, and his occult legacy.)
Larchey, Lorédan, Gens Singuliers,1867. (A series of biographical sketches of unusual people from France. The chapter on M.B seems to be primarily sourced from Farfadets, but has some interesting details on M.B’s war with the farfadets, some first-hand interactions with M.B., and the publication of the book.)
Steinmetz, Jean-Luc, “Un Schreber Romantique, Berbiguier de Terre-Neuve do Thym“, 1979 (Farfadets as the work of a “literary madman,” with discussion of signs of mental illness. A good read, though it doesn’t venture outside M.B’s autobiography.)
Wertheim, Christine, “Fous Littéraires: Some examples from a non-cannon,” 2016