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Formicarius
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Johannes Nider's Formicarius, composed around 1436 to 1438 and first printed around 1475, is a primary medieval text; the atlas records no publisher and no single year for it because those decades separate its composition from its first printing, and it went through further editions afterward. Its strength is that its fifth book is the earliest sustained description of a supposed organized witch sect, drawing on Nider's own interviews with an inquisitor. Its limit is that it is a devotional and inquisitorial text written to warn against witchcraft, not a neutral ethnographic record, and it later fed directly into the Malleus Maleficarum.
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Johannes Nider's Formicarius, composed around 1436 to 1438, the top tier reflecting a primary medieval text whose fifth book is the earliest sustained description of a supposed organized witch sect, drawing on Nider's own interviews with an inquisitor. Its limit is that it is a devotional and inquisitorial text written to warn against witchcraft, not a neutral ethnographic record, and it later fed directly into the Malleus Maleficarum. NotesComposed around 1436 to 1438 and first printed around 1475. Book five is the earliest sustained description of a supposed witch sect.
Citation
AuthorJohannes Nider
Source Typeprimary-text
Claims Backed By This Source (8 claims)
This source backs 8 claims across the atlas. As facts: 7 well-attested. Plus 1 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- Sources, 5 claims: 5 well-attested.
- Esoteric Texts, 2 claims: 1 well-attested, 1 general references.
- Articles, 1 claims: 1 well-attested.
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