Magnetic Library (Biblioteca Magnetica)

The Magnetic Library (Biblioteca Magnetica) is the collection of historical sources of the Mesmerismus Research Institute, the research institute of the Balkan International Academy Foundation. It catalogues works on animal magnetism, hypnotism, somnambulism, fascination and psychical research, and compares them with the reference bibliography used by historians of hypnosis.

Figures

The figures are those of the Library's catalogue as of 26 October 2026.

• 3,839 catalogued works, about 3,300 of them with full text.
• About 710 works also listed in Adam Crabtree's bibliography (1766–1925), about 530 of them identified with high confidence: more than a third of the bibliography.
• For 1766–1849 the Library holds more than half of the entries listed by Crabtree: 317 of 585.
• The library also holds about 290 books and pamphlets on the subject, printed between 1766 and 1925, that do not appear in Crabtree's bibliography (estimate based on an independent sample check of 40 works among 340 candidates).
• Over 13,600 documents in the digital collection, in more than 10 languages.

Method

The Library's method follows a reference bibliography widely used by historians of hypnosis. Adam Crabtree, a Canadian psychotherapist and historian of psychology, published in 1988 Animal Magnetism, Early Hypnotism, and Psychical Research, 1766–1925: An Annotated Bibliography, which lists and comments about 1,900 works in chronological order (see Crabtree bibliography).

Crabtree's bibliography is used as a grid, in four steps.

1. Gathering: documents and editions are collected.
2. Identification: each document is identified as a distinct text, because the same work may exist in several editions or copies.
3. Comparison: each work is compared with Crabtree's entries; matches are verified by rule-based comparison and a second independent check.
4. Record: the work is described in period records, published step by step.

BM codes

Each work receives a permanent reference code in the form BM-year-number, for example BM-1784-012. The code stays the same when the work is described better or further copies are found, so that it can be cited without ambiguity.

Access

Researchers can apply for access to the Library as visiting scholars, on the basis of a short research proposal.

Related wiki pages

• Crabtree bibliography
• Progetto — Fonti primarie del corpus magnetico (Italian) — wiki pages on individual source works

External links

• The Magnetic Library — the Library's page on the foundation website

This page is part of the Paret Method Wiki, the body of research on mesmerism, fascination and non-verbal hypnosis curated by Dr. Marco Paret, creator of the Mesmerismus® method. The practical side is taught in the seminars of Dr. Marco Paret's School: www.marcoparet.com.