A reprinted bound manuscript of the (in)famous Malleus Maleficarum, the best known of the witch-hunt manuals.
The Malleus Maleficarum is arguably one of the most infamous books ever written, due primarily to its position and regard during the Middle Ages. It served as a guidebook for Inquisitors and was designed to aid them in the identification, prosecution, and dispatching of Witches. It set forth, as well, many of the modern misconceptions and fears concerning witches and the influence of witchcraft. Its contents came to be widely regarded as irrefutable truth. It must be remembered that the Malleus is a work of its time. It was a way for ordinary people to make sense of the world around them. The Malleus drew upon those beliefs, and, by its very existence, reinforced them and brought them into the codified belief system of the Catholic Church. In many ways, it could be said that it helped to validate the Inquisition itself.
The book played an important role in justifying the atrocities of the Inquisition. Thus has it been said that The Malleus Maleficarum is one of the most blood-soaked works in human history, in that its very existence reinforced and validated Catholic beliefs which led to the prosecution, torture, and murder, of tens of thousands of innocent people. The lasting effect of the Malleus upon the world can only be measured in the lives of the hundreds of thousands of men, women, and even children, who suffered, and died, at the hands of the Inquisitors. At the height of its popularity, the book was surpassed in public notoriety only by The Bible. Its effects were even felt in the New World, where the last gasp of the Inquisition was felt in the English settlements in America (most notably in Salem, Massachusetts during the Salem Witch Trials). It offers to us an intriguing glimpse into the Medieval mind, and perhaps gives us a taste of what it might have been like to have lived in those times.
[Description paraphrased from www.malleusmaleficarum.org]
The book is printed on 24lb. parchment paper and bound with metal chicago screws. It measures approx. 8.5" x 11". It is 200 pages in length, has the original frontispiece and is printed in the original medieval font. It contains several medieval witchcraft engravings. Great as a conversation piece or for anyone interested in the history of witchcraft, book arts occultism, esoterica, philosophy, the history of Christianity or medieval history. Has the look and feel of a real manuscript.
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