BOOK: Christopher S. MACKAY, "An Unusual Inquisition" - Translated Documents from Heinricus Institoris’s Witch Hunts in Ravensburg and Innsbruck (Leiden/New York: Brill, 2020). ISBN 978-90-04-42378-7, 105.00 EUR

 

(Source: Brill)

Brill has published a new book on primary sources related to Heinricus Institoris, the major author of the Malleus Maleficarum.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Heinricus Institoris is the major author of the Malleus Maleficarum, the best known early-modern textbook on witchcraft. This work was heavily influenced by Institoris's activities as inquisitor in Ravensburg in 1484 and Innsbruck in 1485. This volume contains the only complete translations of a large number of documents pertaining to these inquisitions, and is a companion to a new (and the only complete) edition of these texts, which shed much light on the composition of the Malleus Maleficarum in general.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Christopher S. Mackay (doctorate in Classical philology from Harvard University, 1994) is full professor in the Department of History and Classics of the University of Alberta. He has published books on Roman history, and translations and editions of texts from the early modern period, including the Malleus Maleficarum.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements 
Introduction 
Bibliography 
Translation Notes 
List of Decretals Cited 

Texts 

1 Letter from the Burgermasters and City Council of Ravensburg to Archduke Sigismund of the Tyrol, December 17, 1484 

2 Urfehde (Guarantee of Good Behavior) for a Woman Presumably Questioned for Witchcraft by Institoris, Ravensburg, October 23, 1484 

3 Instruction from Bishop Georg of Brixen to His Ecclesiastical Subordinates, July 23, 1485 

4 Letter of Bishop Georg of Brixen to Institoris, September 21, 1485 

5 Letter from Bishop Georg of Brixen to Archduke Sigismund, September 21, 1485 

6 Letter from Archduke Sigismund of Austria to Bishop Georg of Brixen, October 8, 1485 

7 Letter of Bishop Georg of Brixen to Sigismund Sämer, Parish Priest of Axams, Undated 

8 Vernacular Protocol 

9 Protocols of the Hearings Conducted against the Seven Arrested Women 

10 Articles of Suspected Crimes and List of Questions for the Further Investigation of the Seven Suspects after Their Release 

11 Record of the Proceedings against the Seven Accused, October 29 and 31 and November 3, 1485 

12 Letter from Bishop Georg of Brixen to Institoris, November 14, 1485 

13 Letter from Bishop Georg of Brixen to an Unnamed Parish Priest in Innsbruck, November 14, 1485 

14 Letter of Bishop Georg of Brixen to a Brother Nicholas, February 9, 1486 

15 Letter of Bishop Georg of Brixen to Institoris, February 9, 1486 

16 Brixen Memorandum 
Index 

 

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BOOK: Valerie A. KIVELSON and Christine D. WOROBEC, Witchcraft in Russia and Ukraine, 1000-1900 : A Sourcebook (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2020). ISBN 978-1-5017-5067-0, 113.95 EUR

(Source: Cornell University Press)

Cornell University Press is publishing a sourcebook on witchcraft in Russia and Ukraine.

ABOUT THE BOOK

This sourcebook provides the first systematic overview of witchcraft laws and trials in Russia and Ukraine from medieval times to the late nineteenth century. Witchcraft in Russia and Ukraine weaves scholarly commentary with never before published primary source materials translated from Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian. These sources include the earliest references to witchcraft and sorcery, secular and religious laws regarding witchcraft and possession, full trial transcripts, and a wealth of magical spells. The documents present a rich panorama of daily life and reveal the extraordinary power of magical words.

Editors Valerie A. Kivelson and Christine D. Worobec present new analyses of the workings and evolution of legal systems, the interplay and tensions between church and state, and the prosaic concerns of the women and men involved in witchcraft proceedings. The extended documentary commentaries also explore the shifting boundaries and fraught political relations between Russia and Ukraine.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Valeria A. Kivelson is Thomas N. Tentler Collegiate Professor of History and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of History at the University of Michigan. She is the author of Cartographies of Tsardom, Desperate Magic, and Autocracy in the Provinces.

Christine D. Worobec is Distinguished Research Professor Emerita at Northern Illinois University. She is the author of Possessed and Peasant Russia.

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BOOK: Donald PRUDLO, ed., A Companion to Heresy Inquisitions (Leiden-New York: Brill, 2019). ISBN 978-90-04-36090-7, €198.00

(Source: Brill)

Brill has published a companion to heresy inquisitions.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Inquisitions of heresy have long fascinated both specialists and non-specialists. A Companion to Heresy Inquisitions presents a synthesis of the immense amount of scholarship generated about these institutions in recent years. The volume offers an overview of many of the most significant areas of heresy inquisitions, both medieval and early modern. The essays in this collection are intended to introduce the reader to disagreements and advances in the field, as well as providing a navigational aid to the wide variety of recent discoveries and controversies in studies of heresy inquisitions. 

ABOUT THE EDITOR

Donald S. Prudlo, Ph.D. (2004), University of Virginia, is Professor of Medieval History at Jacksonville State University. He has published works on inquisitions, saints and sainthood, and Church history, most recently Certain Sainthood (Cornell, 2016)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors
 Introduction
  Donald S. Prudlo 

Part 1 : Origins of Inquisitions of Heretical Depravity

 1 The Spiritual Foundations of Christian Heresy Inquisitions
  Christine Caldwell Ames
 2 Precursors to Religious Inquisitions: Anti-Heretical efforts to 1184
  Michael Frassetto 

Part 2 : Medieval Inquisitions

 3 The Fourth Lateran Ordo of Inquisition Adapted to the Prosecution of Heresy
  Henry Ansgar Kelly
 4 The Church’s Institutional Response to Heresy in the 13th Century
  Lucy Sackville
 5 Heresy Inquisitions in the Later Middle Ages
  Robin Vose 

Part 3 : The Iberian Inquisitions

 6 The Spanish Inquisition and the Converso Challenge ( c.1480–1525): A Question of Race, Religion or Socio-Political Ascendancy?
  Helen Rawlings
 7 The Metamorphosis of the Spanish Inquisition, 1520–1648
  Werner Thomas
 8 The Rise of the Modern Inquisition in Portugal and Brazil, and the Transformation of Jews and New Christians into Heretics
  Lúcia Helena Costigan 

Part 4 : The Italian Inquisitions

 9 The Takeover of the Roman Inquisition
  Elena Bonora
 10 Politics, Diplomacy and Religious Dissent. The Activity of the Inquisition in Early Modern Venice
  Federico Barbierato
 Bibliography
 Index 

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BOOK: Gregory J. DURSTON, Crimen Exceptum: The English Witch Prosecution in Context. (Sherfield on Loddon: Waterside Press, 2019). ISBN 9781909976658, £22.50

(Source: Waterside Press)

Waterside Press has published a new book on witch prosecutions in early modern England.

ABOUT THE BOOK

As the author notes, ‘The early-modern European witch-hunts were neither orchestrated massacres nor spontaneous pogroms. Alleged witches were not rounded up at night and summarily killed extra-judicially or lynched as the victims of mob justice. They were executed after trial and conviction with full legal process’.

In this concise but highly-informed account of the persecution of witches Gregory Durston demonstrates what a largely ordered process was the singling-out or hunting-down of perceived offenders. How a mix of superstition, fear, belief and ready explanations for ailments, misfortune or disasters caused law, politics and religion to indulge in criminalisation and the appearance of justice. Bearing echoes of modern-day ‘othering’ and marginalisation of outsiders he shows how witchcraft became akin to treason (with its special rules), how evidentially speaking storms, sickness or coincidence might be attributed to conjuring, magic, curses and spells. All this reinforced by examples and detailed references to the law and practice through which a desired outcome was achieved.

In another resonance with modern times, the author shows how decisions were often diverted into the hands of witch-hunters, witch-finders (including self-appointed Witchfinder General, Matthew Hopkins), witch-prickers and other experts as well as the quaintly titled ‘cunning-folk’ consulted by prosecutors and ‘victims’. 

Crimen Exceptum (crimes apart). A straightforward and authoritative guide. Shows the rise and fall of prosecutions. Backed by a wealth of learning and research. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gregory J Durston is a barrister-at-law who has taught in law schools in England and Japan. He was for many years Reader in Law at Kingston University, Surrey and is currently an adjunct professor at Southern Cross University School of Law and Justice, New South Wales, Australia. He is the author of Fields, Fens and Felonies and Whores and Highwaymen (both Waterside Press).

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