The Hammer of Witches

We've got an evil one this week, both in terms of a book's subject matter and its impact in the world. Back in the fifteenth century, European Christians were developing a new understanding of how Satan worked on Earth: that he could bestow demonic powers onto humans so that they could commit harm through magic and undermine faith in God. This, among other factors, prompted the prosecution of those accused of practicing this diabolic witchcraft and the onset of the European witch hunts. Lasting from approximately 1420 to 1780 but concentrated most heavily in the period of 1560 to 1640, the trials led to the execution of somewhere between 40,000 and 60,000 individuals. 

One influence on these witch hunts was the Malleus Maleficarum, or The Hammer of Witches. We have a first edition, published in 1486 or 1487 in Speyer, Germany. Its authorship is somewhat contested but generally contributed to Henricus Institorius and Jacobus Sprenger, two Dominican friars. Institorius is the one who had practical experience persecuting the accused -- at one point in his life he claimed to have had 48 women executed. In terms of influence, it seems that the Malleus did a lot to formalize and disseminate the newer theories of diabolic witchcraft and structures for dealing with witches: its three sections are focused on 1) proving that witchcraft is real, 2) explaining how witchcraft operates and how it can be counteracted, and 3) how practitioners should be prosecuted. It also focused on witchcraft as something practiced by the lower classes and by women more frequently than men, which was certainly consistent with trends in who was prosecuted in most countries during the witch hunts.  

Our copy is pretty tidy, save for some staining on the initial pages and a few handwritten notes in the second section. The marginalia is intriguing -- we think we can pick out the words "exorcismus" and "rebaptismus." Certainly it seems like the reader was considering proposed treatments for the accused or their victims.  Whether or not they bought in, it's hard to say.

To look at the Malleus Maleficarum yourself, request Incunabula 170.