[?]SPRENGER, Heinrich (c. 1436-95), Heinrich KRAMER [or INSTITORIS] (c. 1430-1505) and Johannes NIDER (1380-1438). Malleus maleficarum.

[?]SPRENGER, Heinrich (c. 1436-95), Heinrich KRAMER [or INSTITORIS] (c. 1430-1505) and Johannes NIDER (1380-1438). Malleus maleficarum: De lamiis et strigibus, et sagis, aliisque magis et dæmoniacis, eorumq; arte et potestate et poena, Tractatus aliquot tam veterum, quàm recentiorum auctorum. Frankfurt: [Colophon:] “Impressum Francofurti ad Moenum, Sumptibus Nicolai Bassoei,” 1588. Volume one only (of 2), 8vo (160 x 102mm). 806 pages + 36 pages of the Index, woodcut device on title, final text leaf and colophon, initials, ornament (lacks all before title [i.e. blank], variable mainly light browning, spotting and staining, but gathering x[1]-[x8] very heavily browned, some worming to lower margins but affecting letters from [y5-Aa8], a few rustholes and darker spots). Contemporary vellum, yapp edges, spine titled in old manuscript (some staining). Provenance: old inscription on title and intermittent underlining of text; old catalogue descriptions laid down on front pastedown; G. L. Engle, 1952 (label); from the Library of the late Sir George Engle. Compiled in the late 15^th-century by Dominican inquisitors, the Malleus maleficarum (literally, the ‘hammer of witches’) is perhaps the best known of the earliest treatises on witchcraft. The attribution of Sprenger as a co-author has been disputed. The first printed edition appeared in Strasbourg in 1486. “There can be no doubt that this work had in its day and for a full couple of centuries an enormous influence. There are few demonologists and writers upon witchcraft who do not refer to its pages as an ultimate authority. It was continually quoted and appealed to in witch-trials” (Montague Summers). “It is universally considered as the greatest summa of printed demonological literature …” (Mora, George (editor), Witches, Devils, and Doctors in the Renaissance, 1991, pp. 724-5). Norman Douglas described it as “the misogynists’ handbook.” Cf. Norman 1997; cf. Wellcome 6049.