The crime of witchcraft was to become a cause of prime concern for many communities and authorities in early modern Germany. During the fifteenth century, contemporary understandings of witchcraft underwent a steady transformation, and an expanded notion of witchcraft, often referred to as a new cumulative concept of witchcraft, was developed.1 And, what is more, this new concept was disseminated through the medium of print. The basic component of this new idea of witchcraft was that all magic, good or bad, involved a pact with the devil. In this way traditional maleficium, or harmful magic, became increasingly interlinked with apostasy. Witches were believed to reject God, entering into a pact with the devil in return for magical powers. In addition, witches were no longer viewed as acting in isolation but were thought to be conspiring together, meeting at nocturnal assemblies. This chapter will examine what role broadsheets played in reporting the news of witchcraft during the period of prosecutions. It will begin by providing some background context, before moving on to an examination of the treatment of witches’ crimes and punishments in news broadsheets. As the concept of witches acting collectively had a substantial impact on the dynamic of prosecution, an investigation of the witches’ sabbath in illustrated broadsheets will be included. Finally, the purpose of such works will be considered. Why did authors pen, and printers print, these accounts?
The sixteenth century witnessed the first wide-scale witch prosecutions within the Holy Roman Empire. The gruesome crimes attributed to witches and their public execution, enacted upon them by ‘pious’ authorities, attracted the attention of numerous anonymous authors. Accounts of witches’ confessions and crimes made headlines and were printed in pamphlets and
Far fewer broadsheets on witchcraft have survived than pamphlets; not surprisingly, given the fragile, ephemeral nature of broadsheets. In the sixteenth century there are only four extant broadsheets concerning witchcraft, with four more dealing with werewolves, compared to at least thirty-eight identified pamphlets on witches.7 The surviving broadsheets reporting about witchcraft from the seventeenth century are equally sparse. I have only been able to locate seven news broadsheets from this period. Hence, the total that will be considered in this chapter is eleven (the werewolf broadsheets will not be considered, nor will any other witch broadsheets which cannot be categorised as ‘news’). Out of this eleven, the location of printing for two are unknown, one was printed at Protestant Kempten in 1627, three in Protestant Nuremberg in 1533, 1555, and 1627,8 and five in bi-confessional Augsburg in 1600, 1654 and 1669, with two in 1666. Interestingly four of the latter five were printed by the same Catholic Briefmaler, Elias Wellhöfer.9
“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live”: Illustrating Witchcraft Executions
For the majority of news reports printed as Einblattdrucken, or Flugblättern, the image played an important role. All of the witchcraft news sheets used in this chapter contained illustrations. The fact that many of the sources contain both text and image, led to what has been called a three-dimensional relationship: image-viewer-text; in the words of Bob Scribner: “A viewer could move from image to text and back again, the text could explain aspects of the image, present information not included in it, or clarify the significance of the image on several levels.”10 Visual representations of the scenes described in the textual account could also lend credibility to the narrative.11 In the case of witchcraft, Charles Zika has argued that such illustrations helped to make the witch more immediate, recognisable and credible.12 Illustrated broadsheets could help readers perceive witchcraft as a real threat that needed to be rooted out. Through the use of woodcuts, people had an opportunity to witness the witches’ crimes with their own eyes, becoming what Daniela Kraus terms “quasi-witnesses.”13 Simultaneously they also got to lay their eyes on the detailed representation of the punishments meted out by the authorities. The core scene that was included in nearly all illustrations was the witches’ execution. This emphasis on execution gradually gave way to illustrations that focused
Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth century the spectacle of execution was an important public and communal affair, symbolically enacting the removal of the criminal from society, and the restoration of order by the magistrate. In the words of Richard Van Dülmen, public spectacles of punishment were both demonstrations of power and quasi-religious popular festivals, they were “not a mere theatre of horror for simple folk” – but an act for the restoration of a world that had been damaged by a crime, and a celebration of the religious sacrifice of a repentant sinner.15 The punishment for witchcraft was burning, which was also used in cases of heresy as a means of purification.16 The official law code of the Holy Roman Empire, the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina (1532), stipulated in Article 109 that the crime of sorcery deserved capital punishment, stating that: “…anyone who inflicts harm or injury on others through sorcery shall be punished from life unto death, and such punishment shall be carried out by fire.”17 This paragraph on harmful sorcery provided the legal basis for many witch trials in early modern Germany.18 This spectacle of horror was used by authorities to remind those in attendance (and executions often drew large crowds of spectators) about the consequences of such crimes.19 The confession of the criminal was read aloud at the place of execution, often providing the details for subsequent news accounts. In light of this, one can see how some authorities may have been happy to have the
One of the first cases of witchcraft that gained what could be termed media notoriety was the case of a maid who worked at an inn in Schiltach, near Rotweil in Baden-Württemberg, who was accused of burning the town to the ground with the help of the devil.20 The maid was put on trial, and following her confession, she was publicly executed; at least two pamphlets were printed about the case.21 These were joined by a broadsheet (Fig. 19.1 and Colour plate ix) which was printed in Nuremberg, located just over 300 kilometres away from Schiltach, by the briefmaler Stefan Hamer. Hamer’s broadsheet included a woodcut that was crafted by Erhard Schön. The earlier pamphlets could have been the source of the anonymous author’s inspiration. The broadsheet was entitled “A terrifying story of the devil and a witch that took place in Schilta near Rotweil.”22 It is known that the story of the maid travelled far and wide, with the story even making an appearance in the correspondence of Erasmus of Rotterdam.23
Ein erschröcklich geschicht Vom Tewfel und einer unhuldenplate IX)(Nuremberg: Stefan Hamer, 1533). ustc 750223.
Zürich, Zentralbibliothek, pas ii 1/33.
The image in this broadsheet shows the witch being executed in the right foreground, with the executioner doing his duty by stoking the flames. Interestingly, the woman is depicted topless. For this reason, Hans Harter has labelled the image as voyeuristic. We know that this representation is not historically accurate, as criminals had to wear a special penance shirt when being executed.24 In the background one can see the image of the town alight. The flames bellowing out of the town mirror the flames encircling the maid who is held accountable for arson. The crime and punishment are illustrated in rather simplistic terms. If one were to only read the image without the text, one might gather that there was arson involved, but witchcraft? While the devil features prominently in the textual account, he is noticeably absent from the image.
Other reports from the sixteenth century similarly gave the execution pride of place in the accompanying illustration. For example, in a report about four witches who were executed in Wittenberg in 1540, the image dominates the sheet, taking over two-thirds of the page. Not only that, but the woodcut, which was executed by Lucas Cranach the Younger, focuses solely on the gruesome execution of these witches. The four witches, a woman, her son, and two others are seen mounted high on stakes to which they have been chained, their bodies appear charred, with skin flaking off their legs, their intestines and bowels pouring out from open wounds.25 This image is unusual as most other execution scenes display the executioner. It also does not illustrate any of the crimes of which the witches were accused. The title extols the authorities, who are carrying out God’s work, through referring to Paul’s letter to the Romans. In this letter Paul insists that every person must be subject to the governing authorities, and that those who resist such authority also resist God.26 Rulers bear the sword of God, to avenge those who do evil. As the broadsheet title summarises it: “Paul to the Romans xiii. The powerful or authorities are not to be feared by the good, but by those who do evil, for they [the authorities]
In 1555 an account of three witches prosecuted in Derneburg was published as an illustrated broadsheet (Fig. 19.2 and Colour plate x): “A terrible history, which happened in Derneburg in the county of Reinsteyn, in Harz in 1555 of three sorceresses and two men.” The image in this broadsheet is significant for a number of reasons. Charles Zika referred to this report as in many ways ‘typical’ but while the format may be typical, there is nothing ‘typical’ about the content of this report.29 Firstly, unlike both earlier reports the image is more complex. On the left foreground, the three women are shown burning at the stake. Like the image from 1533, the fire is tended to by the executioner, but this time he is accompanied by another gentleman. Moreover, a number of spectators are displayed gathered in the distance to observe the punishment. The text focuses primarily on two witches, Gißlersche and Gröbische, but also details how Gröbische’s husband was executed, by sword, for sleeping with her sister. His execution is visible in the right background. In the sky above, a demon-like figure flies through the air to claim one of the witches. When a witch made a pact with the devil, contemporaries believed that they surrendered their soul to him. This image literally represents the devil come to take his due. As the text explains, after Gröbische was fastened to the stake and as the fire was sparked “the lover, Satan came and took her away in the air visibly before everyone.”30 However, what makes this account so unusual is that the crimes discussed in the text and depicted in the image allegedly happened after the witches were executed. They supposedly came back from the dead and killed the husband
Ein erschröckliche geschicht/ so zu Derneburg in der Graffschafftplate x)Reinsteyn/ am Harz gelegen / von dreyen Zauberin (Nuremberg: Georg Merckel, 1555). ustc 750051.
Zürich, Zentralbibliothek, pas ii 12/49.
This emphasis on punishment in sixteenth-century broadsheets, more generally, has been noted by David Kunzle and Karl Härter. Härter noted that in a study of 100 broadsides reporting various crimes, the scene of execution and punishment played a prominent role.31 Kunzle also found that in the sixteenth century it was the elaboration of punishment that made for narrative.32 The depiction of punishment found in an illustrated witchcraft broadsheet from 1600 is in keeping with this trend (Fig. 19.3 and Colour plate xi).33 This report which detailed the case of the Pappenheimer family, who were tried and executed in Munich, contained four separate images, with scenes from their punishment taking up three out of the four images. The broadsheet was printed in nearby Augsburg by Michael Manger and a coloured version is still extant at the Münchner Stadtmuseum. The woodcuts graphically depict the infliction of various forms of punishment on the accused. But how accurate are the representations?
Kurze Erzöhlung vnd Fürbildung der vbelthatten / welche vonplate xi)Sechs personen / als einem Mann / seinem Eheweib / zweyen jrer Söhnen / vnd zweyen anderen Jhren Gesellen / begangen (Augsburg, 1600).
Munich, Münchner Stadtmuseum, M I/320.
The trial records for this case are extant, and it is known that the executive justice, Christopher Neuchinger of Oberneuching, sentenced them to death “by torment”: “namely that all six be placed publicly upon two carts, drawn in procession before their deaths to the place of execution, the body of each to be torn six times with red-hot pincers, the mother to have her breasts cut off, the five condemned males to have their limbs broken on the wheel, and Paulus Gämperle thereafter to be impaled upon a stake, all six persons then to be put to death by fire.”34 Each of these stages is dutifully illustrated in graphic detail in the broadsheet that recorded the execution.
The Crimes of Witches
The crime of witchcraft was presented as a real threat to society not only in early modern news reports, but also in legal codes, demonologies and literary texts. It is evident that research paradigms have shifted in recent years and instead of asking why people believed in witchcraft, the focus is now on how witchcraft was understood. Rather than simply labelling belief in witchcraft as illogical, historians now try to comprehend the logic of witchcraft belief on its own terms. The linguistic turn of the 1990s undoubtedly had a major impact on witchcraft scholars, who turned to texts to see how witchcraft was framed and constructed in contemporary discourses. Illustrated broadsheets and pamphlets, however, did not receive major attention until recently. Charles Zika, Harald Sipek, Wolfgang Behringer, along with Robert Walinski-Kiehl, have been important figures in drawing attention to the merits and value of illustrated
By the sixteenth century any act of witchcraft was only deemed possible after one had concluded a pact with the devil. This pact formed the basis for all of the witch’s subsequent crimes. Hence, it is not surprising that the witches’ relationship with the devil is mentioned in most broadsheet reports. However, the pact is not always referred to as such, especially in the first half of the sixteenth century. That said, it is usually made clear that the witch had a relationship with the devil. For example the maid from Schiltach is said to have been with the devil for eighteen years,36 while the aforementioned Gröbische, executed in 1555, was reported as courting the devil for eleven years (“das sie Aylff jar mit dem Teüffel gebület habe…”).37
In the seventeenth century, descriptions of the nature of this relationship became more detailed, and, what is more, they were illustrated. It is interesting that despite the fact that more women were prosecuted for the crime of witchcraft, the extant broadsheets portray both women and men as allying with Satan and committing maleficium. In fact, the first image of a witch making a pact with the devil, in a news broadsheet, is of a man, Paulus Gämperle, from the 1600 report concerning the Pappenheimers (Fig. 19.3 and
In 1666 there was another woodcut depicting a male pact with the devil (Fig. 19.6). This image was one of six woodcuts that illustrated the account of the crimes and execution of Simon Altsee, a 78-year-old witch tried in Munich. Unlike the Pappenheimer report, the text in the later broadsheet outlined Simon’s relationship with the devil. The text was connected to the image through an alphabetic key. The meeting with the devil represents the starting point of Simon’s crimes, hence it is labelled ‘A’; this reflects the idea that the pact was the foundation of all witchcraft. In the text that corresponds to ‘A’ the author explained that Simon had disowned God and all the saints and had
Unfortunately, there is only one woodcut in the illustrated broadsheets depicting the female pact with the devil. It was used in two of Wellhöfer’s reports; first in 1654 and then in 1669. It was common for printers to recycle woodcuts where possible, and the four extant broadsheets from Wellhöfer’s workshop are testimony to how woodcuts could not only be reused but also reworked. In the 1654 broadsheet the woodcut was used to illustrate the young Maria Pihlerin’s encounter with the devil, prior to her possession. In the 1669 broadsheet it was used to represent Anna Eberlehrin’s meeting with the devil at a wedding.
It is striking that the female relationship with the devil is illustrated quite differently compared to that of the male witches. The devil is portrayed as a well-dressed gentleman, who dupes and seduces women. He appears mostly in human form, with just a few tell-tale signs that he is not human. Unlike the men who are depicted as entering into some form of business contract, with full knowledge of who they are dealing with, the woman’s relationship with the devil is understood in terms of seduction and courtship. The woman is shown as inferior to the devil, and it is implied that she could easily be tricked. It is noteworthy that the iconography found in this woodcut resembles quite closely a much earlier woodcut depicting the pact in various editions of Ulrich Molitor’s De lamiis et pythonicis mulieribus, so perhaps it is possible that this is where the artist got their inspiration.41 Although it is hard to recognise any difference in how male and female witches are discussed in the texts, it is clear from the illustrations that the relationship with the devil could be imagined differently for men and women, and that this imagined relationship to some extent reflected contemporary understandings of gender.
The confession was of paramount importance because, in cases of witchcraft, it was seen as the ‘Queen of Evidence’.43 The authors of these broadsheets frequently alluded to the witches’ confessions, listing, sometimes item by item, the crimes that they had confessed to committing. The most common crime reported in illustrated witchcraft broadsheets was of witches causing harm to humans and animals, often resulting in death. Sometimes the method used to cause harm was reported too, for example, in the broadsheet from 1555 a witch named Serckschen is said to have lamed a man and killed his livestock by burying a toad beneath the threshold of his front door. The idea that witches could cause harm through burying items beneath the ground, particularly under thresholds is something that was reported in demonologies, especially in a number of narratives from the Malleus Maleficarum (stories which were subsequently copied into other demonologies).44 Witches were also believed to receive a special salve or magical item from the devil to cause harm. For example, the report on Simon Altsee in 1666 claims he had been given a special root from the devil, while Anna Eberlehrin is reported as receiving a white powder from her devil in a report of 1669.So in total these six maleficent persons killed four hundred and one children and eighty-five older people through sorcery… [they] committed twenty-eight church robberies, one hundred and seven murders, caused fires twenty-six times, committed twenty-five break-ins at night, practiced highway robbery nine times, committed thirteen thefts, made hail and showers twenty-one times, destroyed animals and pastures countless times and corrupted four marriages.42
Relation oder beschreibung so Anno. 1669. den 23. Martij in der Römischen Reichs = Statt Augspurg geschehen (Augsburg: Elias Wellhöfer, 1669).
Moritzburg Halle (saale), Kunstmuseum
Other crimes that were reported include weather magic, infanticide, arson, and theft. Weather magic, which was the most frequent crime attributed to witches in pamphlets in the sixteenth century, was recorded in illustrated broadside reports in 1540, 1600, 1666 and 1669. Infanticide features in reports from 1600, 1627, 1666 and 1669. Arson, while it was the subject of the first witchcraft broadsheet in 1533, is not often mentioned, although the Pappenheimers were accused of twenty-six cases of arson in 1600. Similarly, accounts of theft were rare. Another crime that was uncommon was the desecration of the host. There are two accounts of witches desecrating the host in 1666 in two separate broadsheets printed by Wellhöfer. Post-Tridentine Catholicism strongly identified the sacrament of the Eucharist with the sacrificed body of Christ.45 Thus the witches were perceived as physically abusing Christ’s body. Simon Altsee was accused not only of treading the host underfoot, but also selling it, and feeding it to a dog (these acts were illustrated in the top right woodcut in Fig. 19.6). Undoubtedly such stories overlap with contemporary accounts of Jewish ritual murder and blood libel.46 Host desecration and blood libel are closely linked, as both were viewed as attempts to re-enact the Passion of Christ through a renewed attack on his body.47 Such narratives clearly establish the witch as not only a spiritual enemy but also as a physical enemy of God.
In general, the crimes covered in illustrated broadsheets are quite similar to the crimes that were reported in pamphlets. Given their lengthier format, pamphlets had more space to provide more detail about the crimes. It is important to note, however, that we have almost no extant broadsheets from the decades in which the most witchcraft pamphlets were printed, that is the 1580s and 1590s. This makes any detailed comparative analysis difficult.
A Collective Conspiracy against Christianity: The Witches’ Gathering in Illustrated Broadsheets
Were witches shown as acting alone or in a group in illustrated broadsheets? This seemingly simple question is important, as it was the belief that witches were conspiring together, congregating at special witches’ gatherings, that
Broadsheet reporting the sentencing of Simon Altsee in 1666: Warhaffte Beschreibung des Urtheils so Anno 1666. den 9. Januarij in der Churfurstlichen Residenz Statt München (Augsburg: Elias Wellhöfer, 1666).
munich, münscher stadtmuseum [m i/532].
This broadsheet, which was first published during the last decade of the sixteenth century, was not like previous news broadsheets. The format was different: the page layout was in landscape, with the image taking over the print, with only a tiny fraction of the space given over to the text. The first known copy of this broadsheet was, in fact, included in a small tract.50 The sheet lacked a title above the image, but the opening line exclaimed: “Listen to a new frightful adventure of the monstrous sorcerers” (Fig. 19.7).51 It appeared in Thomas Sigfrid’s 1593 work, printed in Erfurt, titled: “The right answer to the question: Whether the sorcerers and sorceresses can bring about illnesses and death with their magical powder / what to think of their salves, their meetings and confessions … with a copperplate engraving placed before your eyes.”52 This tract was printed again in 1594 and 1603, with the broadsheet included on both occasions. There are some minor differences between the broadsheet used in the various editions. The earliest print had an unusual key to the legend, instead of having it in alphabetical order it was A, C, D, H, I, O and P. This was rectified in the later editions. In 1593 and 1594, the opening lines of the broadsheet claimed that the adventures occurred only in the Bishopric of Trier (“Im Bisthumb Trier der werden stat”). This was changed in another
This detailed copperplate engraving, unlike the woodcuts from earlier broadsheets, illustrated nearly all of the crimes attributed to witches, including the witches’ dance and gathering. The image was marked with alphabetical keys that linked specific scenes to the rhyming couplets beneath the text. The first couplet, A, refers to the witches in the top of the image that are travelling
The idea that witches could travel up through chimneys is also portrayed, with the artist displaying witches emerging and entering a chimney top with brooms in their hands. This chimney scene also features in a pen and brown ink drawing by Frans Francken ii (1581–1642).59 It appears that the artist was familiar with this print. The witches’ feast (Zechplatz) is also portrayed in the image on the left hand-side, with a musician playing the pipes in a tree. This copperplate engraving demonstrates that by the close of the sixteenth century nearly all the characteristics of the fully developed witches’ sabbath myth were present. The witches are portrayed as flying to their gathering in the air, and riding on strange animals; when they get there music is performed, they dance and have sexual relations with their demon-lovers.
The witches’ sabbath became an arresting theme for numerous artists in the seventeenth century and beyond, with famous artists such as Jacques De Gheyn ii (1565–1629), Salvator Rosa (1615–1673), and David Teniers the Younger (1610–1690) taking up the subject in several prints.60 Two extant broadsheets
Hort an new schrecklich abenthewr… (s.l., s.n., c. 1600).
wolfenbüttel, herzog august bibliothek, 31.8 aug. 2°, fol, 398.
In 1666 and 1669, Elias Wellhöfer included the same woodcut portraying the witches’ dance and feast in two witch reports. This image (Fig. 19.5), in comparison to the copperplate engraving (Fig. 19.7), and the multifarious representations of the sabbath from artworks of the seventeenth century, is certainly not as complex. Despite that, it highlights how the concept of the witches’ dance, their ability to fly, and the diabolical feast had become fully integrated into the imagined concept of witchcraft. The image borrowed selectively from the extensive witchcraft iconography that had been firmly established by this point.65
Perception and Purpose: Selling Stories of Witches
In order to understand the purpose and contemporary perception of illustrated witchcraft news broadsheets, we need to ask questions about readership and authorship. Joy Wiltenburg has argued that the audience for this type of literature was quite broad and could extend to people of humble status.68 A contemporary account from Augsburg names both journeymen and students as groups who bought such reports.69 Broadsheets also attracted the attention of learned and elite audiences. In fact, two of the witchcraft broadsheets, from 1533 and 1555, were collected by the well-known Swiss pastor Johann Jakob Wick for his Book of Wonders.70 Wick, who was the second Archdeacon of the Zurich Grossmünster, collected, copied and illustrated a vast range of reports concerning the state of the world: signs and wonders of the times which he believed illustrated that the end of the world was approaching; among these were a number of witchcraft pamphlets. It is also noteworthy that the majority of extant witchcraft broadsheets are written in prose: this is all the more interesting when we reflect that half the pamphlets that related news of witches were written in rhyme to be sung to well-known tunes. Witchcraft broadsheets were not written to be sung but to be read. It is important to recognise, however, that reading could be communal.
Like readership, authorship is similarly hard to ascertain. While the authors remain unknown, it does not mean that we cannot consider why they were
In nearby Nuremberg, however, a witchcraft broadsheet of 1627 caused a stir within the city council. It appears this was not the first case that aroused the suspicion of the Nuremberg council. Almost one hundred years earlier, in 1534, they voiced some concern over a print by Stefan Hamer, questioning the truthfulness of one of his reports.78 Franz Mauelshagen believes that this broadsheet was possibly the witchcraft broadsheet about the maid from Schiltach.79 Although all publications were controlled by municipal authorities, some authorities were more proactive at censoring works than others. From as early as 1522 the Reichstag in Augsburg decreed that the printer and place of publication had to be clearly displayed to assist the authorities with their monitoring of the press.80 While waves of prosecutions swept through Bamberg and Würzberg in the 1620s, the Imperial Free City of Nuremberg witnessed no prosecutions whatsoever, with leading citizens remaining sceptical about the reality of witchcraft.81 Thus, when a broadsheet appeared in 1627 outlining the crimes of witches in neighbouring territories, the council were quick to act, no doubt fearing it could spark anxiety in the city. The suspected printer, Ludwig Lochner, was arrested and examined. Ludwig told the authorities that it was his brother who had printed it, and that he had since left Nuremberg. The printer had evidently lied about the place of publication, which was noted as Schmalkalden.
Robert Walinski-Kiehl has discussed this act of censorship in detail in an article from 2002; in the end the printing block used was destroyed, and Lochner was released.82 Compared to other witch reports, however, this account contained some peculiar content which may have led to its censorship. While it reports the usual crimes of witches, such as the pact with the devil and the destruction of crops, it contained a strange section in small font, labelled: “The Confession of these Weeds.”83 There follows a collection of superstitious beliefs, allegedly confessed by the witches themselves. For example, they
When it comes to understanding early modern witchcraft prosecutions, there are many uncertainties and difficulties facing the historian. Historians are trained to sift out facts from fiction, but with witchcraft, we are left with news reports and trial manuscripts about imaginary crimes. In order to comprehend more fully how contemporaries perceived the crime of witchcraft, one must endeavour to look at a wide spectrum of sources. Traditionally, demonologies and trial manuscripts have been mined by researchers to reveal how witchcraft was constructed. However, this chapter has outlined some of the ways in which illustrated witchcraft news broadsheets can enrich our understanding further. There is no hierarchy of sources and although very few broadsheets have survived, when examined qualitatively they provide a fresh insight into how the crime of witchcraft was constructed by early modern reporters, and how representations of crime and punishment changed over time.
List of Extant Illustrated Witchcraft News Broadsheets (Excluding Reports on Werewolves):84
| 1533 | Ein erschröcklich geschicht Vom Tewfel und einer unhulden (Nuremberg: Stefan Hamer, 1533). ustc 750223 |
Paul zun Rom. xiii. Die Gewaltigen oder Oberkeiten sind nicht den die gutes/ sunder den die böses thun / zufürchten / Denn sie tregt das Schwert nich umb sonst / Sie ist Gottes dienerin / eine Racherin uber den der böses thut ([Wittenberg], Lucas Cranach the Younger, 1540). ustc 752694 | |
| 1555 | Ein erschröckliche geschicht/ so zu Derneburg in der Graffschafft Reinsteyn/ am Harz gelegen / von dreyen Zauberin (Nuremberg: Georg Merckel, 1555). ustc 750051 |
| c.1600 | Hort an new schrecklich abenthewr / Von dem unholden ungehewr: in Bisthumb Trier und ander statt / Man ihrer vil gefangen hat (s.l., s.n., 1600). ustc 750674 |
| 1600 | Kurze Erzöhlung vnd Fürbildung der vbelthatten / welche von Sechs personen / als einem Mann / seinem Eheweib / zweyen jrer Söhnen / vnd zweyen anderen Jhren Gesellen / begangen / was massen sie auch / an dem 29. Tag dess Monats Julij / in dem 1600. Jar / in der Fürstlichen hauptstatt München / von dem Leben zum Tod gebracht worden / den Bösen zu einem Schröcken / den Frommen aber zur Wahrnung / für die Augen gestellt (Augsburg: Michael Manger, 1600). |
| 1627 | Druten Zeitung / Verlauff / was sich hin und wider im Frankenland / Bamberg vnd Würzburg mit den Unholden / vnd denen so sich auß Ehr vnd Geltgetz muhtwillig dem Teuffel ergeben (Schmalkalden, 1627). |
| 1627 | Warhafftige erschröckliche Zeytung vnd Geschicht / So sich begeben vnd zugetragen hat in der Statt Wanga (Kempten, 1627). |
| 1654 | Warhaffte Historische Abbild:vnd kurtze Beschreibung / was sich vnlangst in deß Heyl: Reichstatt Augspurg / mit einer ledigen / von einem stummen Teuffel besessen Weibspersohn (Augsburg: Elias Wöllhöffer the Elder, 1654). VD17 23:675370B. |
| 1666 | Warhaffte Beschreibung des Urtheils so Anno 1666. den 9. Januarij in der Churfurstlichen Residenz Statt München an einem weitbeschreiten und erschröcklichen Zauberer vollbracht worden (Augsburg: Elias Wellhöfer, 1666). |
| 1666 | Warhaffte Bescheibung deß Urtheils / so Anno 1666. den 15. Aprilis / in deß heiligen Römischen Reichs-Statt Augspurg / an einer alten Weibs-person namens Anna Schwayhoferin hat begeben vnd zugetragen (Augsburg: Elias Wellhöfer, 1666). |
| 1669 | Relation oder beschreibung so Anno. 1669. den 23. Martij in der Römischen Reichs = Statt Augspurg geschehen / von einer Weibs = Person / welche ob grausamer vnd erschröcklicher Hexerey vnd Verkremmungen der Menschen (Augsburg: Elias Wellhöfer, 1669). |
Brian Levack, The witch-hunt in Early Modern Europe (2nd ed., London: Longman, 1995), p. 51. Wolfgang Behringer, Witchcraft persecutions in Bavaria: popular magic, religious zealotry and reason of state in Early Modern Europe, translated by J.C. Grayson and David Lederer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), p.13. It is striking that although many historians refer to the ‘cumulative concept’ the term did not have its own entry in Richard M. Golden (ed.), Encyclopedia of witchcraft: the western tradition (4 vols., Santa Barbara: abc-clio, 2006). That said, the idea of the cumulative concept and its essential components are discussed in some detail in two other places: Wolfgang Behringer, ‘Laws on Witchcraft, Early Modern’, in Encyclopedia of witchcraft: the western tradition, iii, 636 and Rita Voltmer ‘Witch Hunts’ in Encyclopedia of witchcraft: the western tradition, iv, 1211.
Elizabeth Eisenstein, The printing press as an agent of change: communications and cultural transformations in Early Modern Europe (2 vols., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 434.
Ibid.
For example Stuart Clark conducted a comprehensive investigation of numerous demonological texts in his Thinking with demons: the idea of witchcraft in early modern Europe (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997). There are also a number of recent translations of notable demonologies from Latin into English and German: Wolfgang Behringer, etc. (eds.), Heinrich Kramer (Institoris) Der Hexenhammer (Munich: dtv, 2000); Christopher Mackay (ed.), The hammer of witches: a complete translation of the Malleus Maleficarum (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009); P.G. Maxwell-Stuart (ed.), Martin Del Rio: Investigations into magic (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000); Randy A. Scott (ed.), Jean Bodin: On the demon-mania of witches (Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 1995); Gerhild Scholz Williams (ed.), On the inconstancy of witches: Pierre de Lancre’s Tableau de l’inconstance des mauvais anges et demons (1612), translated by Harriet Stone and Gerhild Scholz Williams (Arizona: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2006).
Wolfgang Behringer, ‘Witchcraft and the Media’ in Marjorie E. Plummer and Robin Barnes (eds.), Ideas and cultural margins in early modern Germany (Surrey: Ashgate, 2009), p. 235.
Andrew Pettegree, The invention of news (London: Yale University Press, 2014). See also Joy Wiltenburg, ‘True Crime: The origins of modern sensationalism’, American Historical Review, 109 (2004), pp. 1377–1404.
For extant pamphlets see Abaigéal Warfield, ‘The media representation of the crime of witchcraft in early modern Germany: An examination of non-periodical news-sheets and pamphlets, 1533–1669’ (PhD dissertation, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, 2013).
The one from 1627, Druten Zeitung / Verlauff / was sich hin und wider im Frankenland / Bamberg vnd Würzburg mit den Unholden / vnd denen so sich auß Ehr vnd Geltgetz muhtwillig dem Teuffel ergeben […] (Schmalkalden, 1627) falsely claimed to be printed at Schmalkalden, most likely to avoid censorship. If so, this subterfuge did not work and the Nuremberg authorities forbade the broadsheet. See also the final section of this chapter.
Elias Wellhöfer was married to the daughter of Catholic printer Andreas Aperger, and from 1657 Wellhöffer printed his broadsheets at the same address of his father-in-law, at ‘Unserer Lieben Frauen Tor.’ See Helmut Gier and Johannes Janota (eds.), Augsburger Buchdruck und Verlagswesen: von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart (Wiesbaden, 1997), p. 1247.
Robert Scribner, For the sake of simple folk: popular propaganda for the German Reformation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), xxviii.
Daniela Kraus, Kriminalität und Recht in frühneuzeitlichen Nachrichtendrucken: Bayerische Kriminalberichterstattung vom Ende des 15. bis zur Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts (Regensburg: Verlag Friedrich Pustet, 2013), p. 41.
Charles Zika, The appearance of witchcraft: print and visual culture in sixteenth century Europe (Oxon: Routledge, 2007), p. 2.
Kraus, Kriminalität und Recht, p. 151.
David Kunzle claimed that to be an early comic strip, there had to be sequence of separate images, and there must be a preponderance of image over text. Kunzle, History of the comic strip. Vol. 1: The early modern comic strip. Narrative strips and picture stories in the European broadsheet from c. 1450 to 1825 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973), p. 2.
Richard van Dülmen, Theatre of horror: crime and punishment in early modern Germany (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1990), p. 3.
Ibid., p. 91.
Friedrich-Christian Schroeder (ed.), Die Peinliche Gerichtsordnung Kaisers Karl v. und des Heiligen Römischen Reichs von 1532 (Carolina) (Stuttgart: Reclam, 2000), p. 73, Article 109, Straff der Zauberey: “Item so jemandt den leuten durch zauberey schaden oder nachtheyl zufügt, soll man straffen vom leben zum todt, vnnd man soll solchen straff mit dem fewer thun.”
Behringer, Witchcraft persecutions in Bavaria, p. 115.
Richard van Dülmen suggests that executions of witches, political traitors and rebels could be witnessed by thousands. Van Dülmen, Theatre of horror, p. 108.
This case, and all of the reports surrounding it have been reprinted and analysed in detail in Hans Harter, Der Teufel von Schiltach: Ereignisse, Deutungen, Wirkungen : mit einer Quellendokumentation (Schiltach: Stadt Schiltach, 2005).
Ein erschrocklich Warhafftige History wie es yetz auff den Gründonnerstag im Kintzgertal zü Schiltach im dreyunddreissigsten jar / der listig Teüfel die frumen leüt daselbs / mit falschen worten/ pfeiffen / allerey gesang / rc. Betrogen / zü lest die Statt gar verderbt / und verbrent hat […] findestu gründlich in disem büchlin getruckt ston. M.D.XXXiii (s.l., 1533), ustc 643301.; Ein wunderbarlich erschrockenlich handlunge / So sich auff den Grün Dornstag dis iars / inn dem Stedlin Schiltach / mit einer brunst durch den bösen geist gestifft / begeben hat /im M.D. Xxxiii. (Leipzig, 1533), ustc 647496.
Ein erschröcklich geschicht Vom Tewfel und einer unhulden, printed by Stefan Hamer (Nuremberg, 1533). [ustc 750223]: “Ein erschröcklich geschicht Vom Tewfel und einer unhulden beschehen zu Schilta bey Rotweil…”
Erasmus’ letters concerning this case can be viewed in German translation in Harter, Der Teufel von Schiltach, pp. 119–120, or in the original Latin in P.S. Allen, H.M. Allen and H.W. Garrod (eds.), Opus Epistolarum Des. Erasmi Roterodami, Vol. 10: 1532–1534 (London: Oxford University Press, 1941), see letters 2846 and 2877. Erasmus referred to the case in two letters, firstly in July 1533 and then, albeit very briefly, in November of the same year. In the first letter, to Damien a Goes, Erasmus claimed to have heard about the fire in Schiltach from Heinrich Glareanus in Freiburg. He said that while one cannot be certain if everything that is said about it is true, it was certainly true that the whole city was burnt to the ground and that a woman was executed there on the basis of her confession. The rest of Erasmus’ relation of the story is very similar to the pamphlet accounts (which included a description of the devil appearing at an inn, playing the pipes before taking off with the maid). While Erasmus remained sceptical about the rumours about what happened, he suggests that the rumours in the nearby areas are so tenacious that they cannot be considered falsehoods. His discussion of the story ends hastily, however; with him saying to Damian that he will spare his ears such “common talk” (vulgi fabulis).
Harter, Der Teufel von Schiltach, p.16.
This image is reprinted and discussed in Charles Zika, The appearance of witchcraft, pp. 183–184.
Michael D. Coogan (ed.), The new Oxford annotated Bible: new revised standard version (3rd Edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), Romans 13.1–13.6.
Paul. zun Rom xiii. Die Gewaltigen oder Oberkeiten sind nicht den die gutes/ sunder den die böses thun / zufürchten / Denn sie tregt das Schwert nicht umb sonst / Sie ist Gottes dienerin / eine Racherin uber den der böses thut, woodcut by Lucas Cranach the Younger (S.l., s.n., 1540). ustc 752694.
Ibid.: “Sie machen listige anschlege wider dein volck / vnd ratschlagen wider deine verborgene.”
Zika, The appearance of witchcraft, p. 180.
Ein erschröckliche geschicht/ so zu Derneburg in der Graffschafft Reinsteyn/ am Harz gelegen / von dreyen Zauberin (Nuremberg: Georg Merckel, 1555): “…ist der büle / der Sathan kommen / und sie in lüfften sichtigklich vor jederman weckgefürt.”
Karl Härter, ‘Criminalbildergeschichten: Verbrechen, Justiz und Strafe in illustrierten Einblattdrucken der Frühen Neuzeit’, in Karl Härter, Gerhard Sälter and Eva Wiebel (eds.), Repräsentationen von Kriminalität und öffentlicher Sicherheit. Bilder, Vorstellungen und Diskurse vom 16. bis zum 20. Jahrhundert, (Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann 2010), pp. 25–88.
Kunzle, History of the comic strip, p. 165.
Kurze Erzöhlung vnd Fürbildung der vbelthatten / welche von Sechs personen / als einem Mann / seinem Eheweib / zweyen jrer Söhnen / vnd zweyen anderen Jhren Gesellen / begangen / was massen sie auch / an dem 29. Tag dess Monats Julij / in dem 1600. Jar / in der Fürstlichen hauptstatt München / von dem Leben zum Tod gebracht worden / den Bösen zu einem Schröcken / den Frommen aber zur Wahrnung / für die Augen gestellt, printed by Michael Manger (Augsburg, 1600).
Michael Kunze, Highroad to the stake: a tale of witchcraft, translated by William E. Yulli (London: University of Chicago Press, 1987), p. 404.
See Zika, The appearance of witchcraft, especially pp. 179–209; Harald Sipek, ‘“Newe Zeitung” – Marginalien zur Flugblatt- und Flugschriftenpublizistik’, in Harald Siebenmorgen (ed.), Hexen und Hexenverfolgung im deutschen Südwesten (2 vols., Karlsruhe: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 1994), ii. 85–92; Behringer, ‘Witchcraft and the Media’, pp. 217–239; Robert Walinski-Kiehl, ‘Pamphlets, Propaganda and Witch-hunting in Germany c. 1560–1630’ in Reformation 6 (2002), pp. 49–74.
Ein erschröcklich geschicht Vom Tewfel und einer unhulden (Nuremberg, Stefen Hamer, 1533).
Ein erschröckliche geschicht/ so zu Derneburg in der Graffschafft Reinsteyn/ am Harz gelegen / von dreyen Zauberin (Nuremberg, Georg Merckel, 1555).
Kunze, Highroad to the stake, pp. 219–220.
Ibid.
Doris Gruber, ‘“Welches Jeden ein Exempel sey, zu Meiden solche Teiffeley” Die Hexenverfolgung am illustrierten Flugblatt der Frühen Neuzeit’ (Diplomarbeit, Universität Graz, 2013), p. 61, available online at http://unipub.uni-graz.at/obvugrhs/content/titleinfo/226845 [15 April 2015].
For more on these woodcuts see Natalie Kwan, ‘Woodcuts and Witches: Ulrich Molitor’s De lamiis et pythonicis mulieribus, 1489–1669’, German History 30, 4 (2012), pp. 493–527.
Kurze Erzöhlung vnd Fürbildung der … (Augsburg, 1600): “Haben also dise Sechs Malefizische Personen / in einer summa vier hundert vnd ain kind / fünff vnd Achtzzig alter Leüth / mit Zauberey hingerichtet… Acht vnd zweinzig Kirchenraub vnd ain hundert vnd siben Mord begangen : Sechs vnd zweinzigmal gebrandt : fünff vnd zweinzigmal Nächtlicher weil eingefallen : Neunmalen Straßrauberey getriben : Dreyzehnmal Diebstall verbracht : Ain vnd zwainzig hagel vnd schaur gemacht : Vnzählich vil malen vich vnd weyd verderbt / vnd vier böse Ehen gemacht.”
Tom Robisheaux, ‘The Queen of Evidence: The Witchcraft Confession in the Age of Confessionalism’, in John M. Headley, etc (eds.), Confessionalization in Europe, 1555–1700: essays in honor of Bodo Nischan (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), pp. 175–206.
Mackay, The hammer of witches, for examples see pp. 321–322 and 378–379.
Michael Ostling, Between the devil and the host: imagining witchcraft in Early Modern Poland (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), p.169.
Edward Muir, Ritual in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 236. See also Ronnie Po-chia Hsia, The myth of ritual murder: Jews and Magic in Reformation Germany (Yale University Press, 1988).
Ostling, Between the devil and the host, p.169.
Norman Cohn, Europe’s inner demons: the demonisation of Christians in medieval Christendom (Revised ed., London: Pimlico, 1993), x.
Wolfgang Behringer, Witchcraft persecutions in Bavaria, p. 14.
Rita Voltmer, ‘“Hört an neu schrecklich abentheuer / von den unholden ungeheuer” – Zur multimedialen Vermittlung des Fahnungsbildes “Hexerei” im Kontext konfessioneller Polemik’ in Karl Härter et al (eds.), Repräsentation von Kriminalität und öffentlicher Sicherheit: Bilder, Vorstellungen und Diskurse vom 16. bis zum 20. Jahrhundert (Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, 2010), p. 112. In this article Voltmer provides a thorough analysis of this broadside.
Hort an new schrecklich abenthewr (c. 1600): “Hört an neu schrecklich abenthewr / von den unholden ungehewr.” ustc 750674.
“Richtige Anwort auff die Frage: Ob die Zeuberer und Zeuberin mit irem zauber Pulfer / krankheiten / oder den todt selber beybringen können / was von ihren Salben / zusammenkunfft und Bekändtnuß zuhalten …. mit eim kupfferstück vor augen gestellet.” See Rita Voltmer, ‘“Hört an neu schrecklich abentheuer”’, p. 112.
Ibid., p. 113.
Ibid.
Gruber, ‘“Welches Jeden ein Exempel sey ”’, pp. 58–59.
Hört an new schrecklich abenthewr…: “Etlich auf bessemen in der Lufft / Farn uber hoche berg und klufft.”
The toad was long associated with evil and the Devil with Pope Gregory ix claiming that heretics belonging to the “sect of the damned” had to kiss a toad on the mouth or on its hindquarters as early as 1233, see ‘Pope Gregory ix: Vox in Rama (1233)’, in Alan Kors and Edward Peters (eds.), Witchcraft in Europe 400–1700: a documentary history (2nd ed., Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001), p. 115.
Voltmer, ‘“Hört an neu schrecklich abentheuer”’, p. 134.
Deanna Petherbridge, Witches and wicked bodies (Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland, 2013), p. 105.
Many of these prints are reproduced in Petherbridge, Witches and wicked Bodies.
Zauberey (1626) and “Sih, wie die Teüfflich hexen rott…” (c. 1630). Both of these broadsheets are digitised on the British Museum website; for the former, see Museum number 1880,0710.388 and for the latter, Museum number 1880,0710.574 at www.britishmuseum.org.
Petherbridge, Witches and wicked bodies, p. 65.
Ibid. The representations of the witches’ sabbath in broadsheets have been investigated in more detail by Doris Gruber, see Gruber ‘Der Hexesabbat: Zeitgenössische Darstellung auf illustrierten Flugblättern’ (Diplomarbeit, Universität Graz, 2013): http://unipub.uni-graz.at/obvugrhs/content/titleinfo/233573.
It is possible that they were intended for entertainment, see Lyndal Roper, ‘Witchcraft and the Western Imagination’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 16 (2006), pp. 117–141. Charles Zika has recently argued that de Gheyn’s works concerning witchcraft were not created as descriptions of any kind of social reality, Zika ‘The Cruelty of Witchcraft: The Drawing of Jacques de Gheyn the Younger’ in Laura Kounine, etc (eds.), Emotions in the history of witchcraft (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), p. 53.
For example the dance is reminiscent of the woodcuts used to illustrate the witches’ dance in Maria Fracesco Guazzo, Compendium Maleficarum (Milan, 1626). The flight on the oven fork and on the goat are also drawing from earlier illustrations. For more on the visual iconography of witchcraft see Charles Zika, The appearance of witchcraft.
Warhaffte Beschreibung des Urtheils so Anno 1666. den 9. Januarij…. printed by Elias Wellhöfer (Augsburg, 1666): “…vnd bey solchen abscheülichen Lastern vnd Ungebühr veruebt.”
Relation oder beschreibung so Anno. 1669. den 23. Martij in der Römischen Reichs = Statt Augspurg (Augsburg, Elias Wellhöfer, 1669): “….darbey dem bösen Geist mit kniebeigen vnd dergleichen solchen Ehr bewisen die sonsten Gott dem Allmächtigen alleingebühre.”
Joy Wiltenberg, Crime and culture in early modern Germany (University of Virginia Press: Virginia, 2013), p. 11.
Ibid.
For more detail on Johann Jacob Wick and his collection see Joy Wiltenburg, Crime and culture, pp. 106–110; Franz Mauelshagen, Wunderkammer auf Papier : die “Wickiana” zwischen Reformation und Volksglaube (Epfendorf: Bibliotheca academica Verlag, 2011).
Andrew Pettegree, The book in the Renaissance (London: Yale University Press, 2010), p. 135.
Ibid., p. 334.
Tom Cheesman, The shocking ballad picture show: German popular literature and cultural history (Oxford: Berg, 1994), p. 48.
Ibid.
Franz Mauelshagen, ‘Verbreitung von Wundernachtrichten als christliche Pflicht: Das Weltbild legitimiert das Medium’, in Franz Mauelshagen, etc. (eds.), Medien und Weltbilder im Wandel der Frühen Neuzeit (Augsburg: Wissner, 2000), p. 138.
See Warfield, ‘ Media representation’, pp. 284–293; cf. Ursula-Maria Krah, ‘Fiktionalität und Faktizität in frühneuzeitlichen Kleinschriften (Einblattdrucke und Flugschriften)’, in Katrin Moeller and Burghart Schmidt (eds.), Realität und Mythos – Hexenverfolgung und Rezeptionsgeschichte (Hamburg: dobu, 2003), pp. 77–86.
Lyndal Roper, Oedipus and the devil: witchcraft, sexuality and religion in early modern Europe (London: Routledge, 1994), p. 205.
Hamer was questioned by the authorities about the origins of the story and its truthfulness: “von wem ers habe, das dise Zeitung und geschichten, die er gedruckt, warhafftig seien.” See Mauelshagen, ‘Verbreitung von Wundernachtrichten’, p. 143.
Ibid.
Kraus, Kriminalität und Recht, p. 44.
Nuremberg experienced no witch-hunts in the early modern period. See Hartmut Kunstmann, Zauberwahn und Hexenprozeß in der Reichsstadt Nürnberg (Nuremberg: Stadtarchiv Nürnberg, 1970).
Walinski-Kiehl, ‘Pamphlets, Propaganda and Witch-hunting’, pp. 68–69.
Druten Zeitung (Schmalkalden, 1627): “Bekanndnuße dieses Unkrauts.”
There were also a number of broadsheets portraying the crime of witchcraft that were not news reports, as well as reports on werewolves: these have not been included in this bibliography. For further details on these broadsides see Gruber, ‘“Welches Jeden ein Exempel sey,”’, pp. 167–171 where she gives full bibliographic details and descriptions of these items.