On the Tricks of Demons and on Enchantments and Poisonings, in Five Books

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Original title: De praestigiis daemonum, et incantationibus ac veneficiis libri V A learned Neo-Latin polemical treatise in five books, printed at Basel by Johannes Oporinus and dedicated to Duke William V of Cleves-Jülich-Berg, in which the physician Johann Weyer argues against the prosecution and execution of accused witches. Combining theological, philosophical, medical, and juridical argument, the work contends that the marvels traditionally attributed to witches — night-flight, coupling with demons (incubi and succubi), metamorphosis — are diabolical illusions (praestigiae) permitted by God and worked upon a corrupted imagination, never real causation. The accused old woman (lamia) is recast as a melancholic, deluded patient rather than a criminal, her confessions being symptoms of humoral disturbance rather than evidence of a demonic pact. Drawing on Christian-Hebraist philology, Weyer rereads Exodus 22:18 to hold that the death penalty falls only upon the poisoner (veneficus) who truly harms the body by material means, under the Roman-law lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis. The treatise attacks the Malleus Maleficarum of Kramer and Sprenger and closes with a gesture of submission to the judgment of the Church. 👉 Read our introductory primer, full report, and finding guide here 📜 View the original source file This text was transcribed and translated as part of the ExLatinis project—an effort by Leo to make English translations of every published text in Latin in early modern Europe (between 1450 and 1750) available to the public for free online.

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Document excerpt

DE PRAESTIGIIS DAEMONVM; ET IN cantationibus, ac uene- ficis, Libri V. Authore IOANNE VVIE- RO Medico. Totius Operis Argumentum in Præ- fatione comperies. Sum Danielis Pappi Zimhuiensis. Nolite uos consortes esse dæmoniorum. 1. Corinth. 10. Resistite diabolo, & fugiet à uobis. Iacobi 4. Cum Cæsareæ Maiest. gratia & priuilegio. BASILEAE, PER IOAN- nem Oporinum. 1563. 30. Bg.