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Institoris, Heinrich, 1430-1505. Malleus maleficarum


  • [Malleus maleficarum, a late-medieval treatise on witchcraft and court procedures for prosecuting witches, was written by the Dominican monk Heinrich Institoris and first printed in 1487, in Speyer (now in Germany). Some early editions credit Jakob Sprenger as a co-author, but scholars do not agree whether Sprenger actually collaborated on this work.] Malleus maleficarum drew heavily on previous texts such as the 14th-century Directorium inquisitorum (by Nicolau Eimeric), the 15th-century Formicarius (by Johannes Nider), and various writings of Thomas Aquinas. In turn, Malleus maleficarum was published in many editions and influenced both secular witchcraft trial procedures and popular perceptions of witchcraft.
  • URI(s)

  • Components

    • Institoris, Heinrich, 1430-1505.
    • Malleus maleficarum
  • Work Begun

    • (edtf) [1486,1487]
  • Form

    • (lcsh) Catholic literature
    • (lcsh) Monks' writings
  • Form

    • (lcgft) Religious materials
    • (lcgft) Legal literature
  • Variants

    • Institoris, Heinrich, 1430-1505. Mallei maleficarum tractatus aliquot noui ac veteres
    • Institoris, Heinrich, 1430-1505. Malleorum quorundam maleficarum, tam veterum quam recentiorum authorum, tomi duo
    • Institoris, Heinrich, 1430-1505. Malleus male ficarum
    • Institoris, Heinrich, 1430-1505. Malleus maleficarum in tres divisus partes
    • Institoris, Heinrich, 1430-1505. Malleus maleficorum, ex plurimis authoribus coaceruatus, ac in duos tomos distinctus
    • Sprenger, Jakob, 1436 or 1438-1495. Malleus maleficarum
  • Related Terms

  • Additional Related Forms

  • Exact Matching Concepts from Other Schemes

  • Closely Matching Concepts from Other Schemes

  • Sources

    • found: Malleus maleficarum, 2006.
    • found: OCLC, June 28, 2007(forms of title: Malleus maleficarum; Mallei maleficarum tractatus aliquot noui ac veteres; Malleorum quorundam maleficarum, tam veterum quam recentiorum authorum, tomi duo; Malleus male ficarum; Malleus maleficarum in tres divisus partes)
    • found: New Catholic encyclopedia, 2003, viewed online 8 November 2017:Witchcraft (the Dominicans Henry Institoris and James Sprenger, making use of inquisitorial writings for the purpose (that of Nicholas Eymericus, 1320-99, among others), composed a commentary for court procedure, the notorious "Hammer of Witches" (Malleus maleficarum) of 1487; this work exercised a long and marked influence on forensic practice)
    • found: Encyclopedia of occultism & parapsychology, 2001, viewed online 8 November 2017(Kramer, Heinrich (ca. 1430-1505); Dominican inquisitor who played a leading part in the great witchcraft persecutions as author of Malleus Maleficarum (literally, the Witches' Hammer), the authoritative sourcebook for inquisitors, judges, and magistrates; in 1485, Kramer wrote a treatise on witchcraft that initially circulated in manuscript; it was published in 1486 as Malleus Maleficarum, with the name of his colleague Jacob Sprenger added as coauthor; went into many editions in French, Italian, and English, as well as in German)
    • found: Wikipedia, 8 November 2017:Malleus maleficarum (Malleus maleficarum; the best known and the most important treatise on witchcraft; historians and work editors are divided on whether Heinrich Kramer (Institoris) and Jacob Sprenger collaborated as co-authors or coauthorship by Sprenger was a falsehood presented by Institoris; Jacob Sprenger's name was added as an author beginning in 1519, 33 years after the book's first publication and 24 years after Sprenger's death; most of the citations in the Malleus come from multiple works of Aquinas; Aquinas is a main source for Section I but is cited in all sections; Formicarius by Johannes Nider is the important source for Section II; and Directorium Inquisitorum by Spanish inquisitor Nicholas Eymeric is a crucial source for Section III; within two years after the issuance of the papal bull Summis desiderantes affectibus, in 1484, the Malleus Maleficarum was finished; the papal bull was included as part of its preface (1486); first published in Speyer in 1487; between 1487 and 1520, twenty editions of the Malleus Maleficarum were published, and another sixteen between 1574 and 1669; spread throughout Europe rapidly in the late 15th and at the beginning of the 16th century; in modern times, the book has often been viewed as a typical inquisitorial manual, a perception that many historians have refuted; actually the Inquisition immediately rejected the legal procedures Kramer recommended and censured the inquisitor himself just a few years after the Malleus was published; secular courts, not inquisitorial ones, resorted to the Malleus)
    • found: Bailey, Michael David. Battling demons, 2003, viewed online 30 October 2017:pages 2-3 (Formicarius (The anthill); the most important work of Johannes Nider, German Dominican theologian and religious reformer; survives in over 25 manuscript copies from the 15th and early 16th centuries and went through 7 printed editions from the 1470s to 1692; an important source of information for the late-medieval treatise on witchcraft and witch hunting, the Malleus maleficarum (first edition 1487), by the Dominican inquisitor Heinrich Kramer (Institoris in Latin), who reproduced large sections of Nider's texts virtually verbatim in the Malleus; the 5th book of Formicarius, dealing primarily with witchcraft, was often printed along with the Malleus in later editions)
    • found: Wikidata, 12 April 2019(Malleus Maleficarum (Q208556); description: treatise on the prosecution of witches; instance of: book; inception: 1486, Gregorian; genre: religion, law; author: Heinrich Kramer, James Sprenger; language of work or name: Latin) - http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q208556
    • found: Malleus maleficorum, ex plurimis authoribus coaceruatus, ac in duos tomos distinctus, 1584
  • General Notes

    • [Malleus maleficarum, a late-medieval treatise on witchcraft and court procedures for prosecuting witches, was written by the Dominican monk Heinrich Institoris and first printed in 1487, in Speyer (now in Germany). Some early editions credit Jakob Sprenger as a co-author, but scholars do not agree whether Sprenger actually collaborated on this work.] Malleus maleficarum drew heavily on previous texts such as the 14th-century Directorium inquisitorum (by Nicolau Eimeric), the 15th-century Formicarius (by Johannes Nider), and various writings of Thomas Aquinas. In turn, Malleus maleficarum was published in many editions and influenced both secular witchcraft trial procedures and popular perceptions of witchcraft.
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  • Change Notes

    • 2007-06-28: new
    • 2021-10-02: revised
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