The Malleus Maleficarum - Heinrich Kramer

The Malleus Maleficarum by Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger is a historic text associated with the inquisitorial thinking of late 15th-century Europe. This paperback edition is a reprint of the 1928 edition, published by Dover Publications Inc.

Key details

• Authors: Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger
• Translated by Montague Summers
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 336
• Publisher: Dover Publications Inc
• Publication date: 1 February 2000

Synopsis

For nearly three centuries, The Malleus Maleficarum (The Witches' Hammer) served as a professional manual for witch hunters, shaped by the beliefs of its era and issued under a Bull of Pope Innocent VIII. Kramer and Sprenger set out a worldview that places devils, witches and the will of God at its centre, and they argue against those who denied the existence of witches.

The text draws on contemporary cases to describe alleged practices and confessions, alongside methods the authors present for destroying and curing witchcraft. It also lays down formal rules for initiating and conducting judicial process, including guidance on trials, sentencing and the search for tokens and amulets. This edition includes Montague Summers’s translation and two introductions discussing examples of witchcraft and the work’s historical importance, making it of interest to historians, students of witchcraft and the occult, and readers exploring the medieval mind.

Rackhams Reference : IZVIZJF1DE