“Malleus Maleficarum:”The Witches Hammer. Jacob Sprenger, Heinrich Kramer, and Johannes Nider. Frankfurt, 1600.
The first volume (of two) of the Frankfurt Basseus edition, containing the complete Latin text of the Malleus Maleficiarum. Parchment binding of the period. Ancient name inscription on flyleaf. Title page somewhat loose, with publisher’s emblem (Nikolaus Basse), Published in 1600 (the number “29” was added by hand), short and ancient erased handwritten entries on title page as well as a very small red library stamp. Collated as complete. Text very neatly printed and clearly readable with figurative initials and marginalia. Index alphabeticus (38 pp., with minor damage starting at letters D to M with no loss of text, then 5 pp. with partial loss affecting the lower page corner. Followed by an index questionum (8 pp., with loss of text, as pictured). Solid binding. Good condition.
Charged by Pope Innocent VIII to investigate witchcraft, Dominican friars Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger traveled throughout Germany gathering Alpine lore and legend for Malleus Maleficarum (The Witches’ Hammer). First published around 1486, the book—with detailed instructions for identifying, trying, torturing and executing witches and tantalizing tales of shape-shifters, incubi and succubi, and mortals in league with Satan—was long “considered the authority” on the subject (Kies 118). This book did much to spur on the witch hunt hysteria in Europe in the 1500’s.
Text of the Malleus in three parts (684 pp., complete):
1) Tria continens, quae ad Maleficium concurrunt, ut sunt Daemon, Maleficus & Diuina permissio
2) Modum in Maleficiis inferendis, atque amouendis feliciter pertractans
3) Ad opus iudiciale, tam in foro ecclesiastico, quam ciuili, contra Malefios, ac omnes Haereticos pertinens, xxxv. Quaestiones completens.
Following: In praecendentem tractatum approbatio, et subscripio Doctorum almae universitatis Colon (complete, pp. 685-693), Ioannis Nideri Theologi Formicarium de Maleficis (694-806, complete, with grotesque in the colophon).
