My project contributes to a global census of early printed editions of the Malleus Maleficarum, one of the most influential and infamous texts in the history of witchcraft, criminal law, and gendered persecution. The project examines how surviving copies of the text were produced, circulated, read, annotated, and preserved across different regions and historical contexts. During my fellowship at the HAB, I will study the library’s four incunable copies of the Malleus Maleficarum, with particular attention to their bibliographical, codicological, and textual features. This includes documenting provenance marks, marginal annotations, bindings, and other material evidence that can reveal how the text was transmitted and received by its readers. The HAB copies form an important case study within the wider census and will help illuminate the early dissemination and reception of a text whose legal, cultural, and social impact was profound.

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