Heinrich Institoris (1430–1505)

The Malleus Maleficarum is one of the best-known treatises dealing with the problem of what to do with witches. The only previous translation into English, that by Montague Summers produced in 1928, is full of inaccuracies, is written in a style nowadays almost unreadable, and is unfortunately colored by his personal agenda. This edited translation, with an introductory essay setting witchcraft, Institoris, and the Malleus into clear, readable English, corrects Summers’s mistakes and offers a lean, unvarnished version of what Institoris actually wrote. It will undoubtedly become the standard translation of this important and controversial late-medieval text. (backflap)… (meer)