Malleus maleficarum and Fasciculus temporum | "Hammer of Witches" and "Bundles of Time"

Malleum maleficarum ("Hammer of Witches")

Speyer, 1490 (second edition)

Authors: Jacob Sprenger (Domenican inquisitor and theologian (1438-1495) and Heinrick Kramer (Henricus Institoris) (ca. 1430-1505)

Publisher: Peter Drach (-1504)

Bound together with

Fasciculus temporum ("Bundles of Time")

Strasbourg, 1490

Author: Werner Rolewinck (Carthusian monk and historian, 1425–1502)

Publisher: Johan Prüss

Height: 26cm

Contemporary binding; wood boards covered in tooled pigskin, corners reinforced with brass; brass clasps with leather hinges. Handwritten in ink after title: "autore Jacobo Sprenger." Pages [4-5]: capitals decorated by hand in red ink. Marginal notes including hand-drawn manicules in ink; worm holes on some pages.

This 1490 edition of the Malleus maleficarum (first published in 1487) is bound in the same cover as a 1490 printing of Werner Rolewinck's world history, Fasciculus temporum. Rolewinck's chronicle (written in 1464 and first published in 1474) was the first world history in print. Popular in its day, it was reprinted 33 times before 1502.

Portland State University Library Special Collections, BF1569.A2 I5 1490
Purchased through the Gordon Hunter Fund, 2018

Malleus maleficarum on PDX Scholar

In September 2018, the Portland State University library acquired a codex printed in 1490, which became the subject of a long-term research project at Portland State University. The book contains two different texts: a world chronicle, known as the Fasciculus temporum, and a second-edition copy of the Malleus Maleficarum, the most comprehensive treatise on witch hunting produced in the late Middle Ages. The essays collected here result from student research on the codex conducted in seminars led by Professor John Ott of Portland State University's Department of History in 2020 and 2022.

pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/mmft/

Witch-hunting, Dog-men, and a World Chronicle: Researching a 500-Year-Old Codex at PSU

In this webinar, presented on January 13, 2021, Portland State University history students highlight their research and discoveries made during the spring term of 2020. The topics range from translating the marginal notations to analyzing watermarks to localize the paper trade related to the codex. The panel was hosted by Professor John Ott, Chair of the History Department and a specialist in medieval history, who is leading this ongoing project.

Moderator: Professor John Ott
Student Panelist: Sarah Alderson, Amanda Bonilla, Christian Graham, Nathaniel Harris, and Amanda Swinford

See their discussion on PSU Media Space.

Carolee Harrison of the PSU Library Special Collections introduces the codex