Malleus Maleficarum 2 Volume Set

Cambridge University Press
Edition: Annotated, 11/9/2006
EAN 9780521859776, ISBN10: 0521859778

Hardcover, 1344 pages, 23.5 x 16.5 x 8.7 cm
Language: English
Originally published in Latin, translated by Christopher S. Mackay

The Malleus Maleficarum is the most famous early modern text on witches and witch hunting. Often known as 'Hammer of Witches', the Malleus consists of descriptions of the practices of witchcraft together with recommended methods of exterminating them. It was republished twenty-six times and remained a standard work on witchcraft for centuries. Yet this key text has never before been available in a reliable modern scholarly edition. This fully annotated edition is based on the first edition of 1486-7 and presents the Latin text together with a full textual apparatus. An extensive introduction discusses the authorship, method of composition, and intellectual background of the work. The second volume provides the only accurate English translation available, together with detailed explanatory notes. This important edition makes this vital text accessible to scholars of the period and offers extraordinary insights into the attitudes and prejudices inspired by the fear of witches.

Volume I: General introduction; Introduction to the Latin text; Malleus Maleficarum; Appendix. Volume II: Notes about usages in the translation; Malleus Maleficarum: English translation.

'This magisterial, two-volume set is destined to become the definitive edition and translation of the notorious fifteenth-century 'Hammer of the Witches'.' Neo-Latin News