Malleus maleficarum

Malleus maleficarum
Anton Koberger, 1494
INSTITORIS, Henricus (c.1430-1505) [and Jacobus SPRENGER (c.1436-1495)]. Malleus maleficarum. Nuremberg: Anton Koberger, 17 March 1494.

A tall and wide-margined copy of the first Koberger edition of the notorious Hammer of the Witches, in a contemporary binding with marginalia, fourth edition overall. This brutal guide to witches and witch-hunting was largely the product of the unhinged Dominican inquisitor Henricus Kramer, known in Latin as Institoris. After being dismissed from a botched witchcraft investigation in Innsbruck in 1486, Kramer retired to Cologne to write his treatise, first published the following year. Although condemned by the Inquisition at the University of Cologne and at various points listed on the Index, the book was immediately immensely popular; its coincidence with the development of printing led to many editions within decades of the text’s debut. The long afterlife of the Malleus contributed to several centuries of deadly witch crazes throughout the early modern era. The attribution of Sprenger as a co-author has been disputed. This copy bears marginalia from a witch-crazed early reader. HC 9245*; BMC II 438; BSB-Ink I-227; Bod-inc I-022; Klebs 926.4; Goff I-166; ISTC ii00166000.

Median quarto (226 x 171mm). 146 leaves. (Some worming affecting text, mostly at ends; a few stains and a narrow dampstain at edges.) Contemporary quarter blindstamped pigskin over wooden boards, title in ink on bottom edge and spine (lacking clasp and rear catchplate, wormed). Provenance: early marginal comments – acquired from Lathrop C. Harper, Inc, New York, 16 May, 1955.