Formicarius

Abstract: Between the late Middle Ages and the early Modern Age, in German-speaking regions, a novel phenomenon of witchcraft emerged: an unprecedented combination of theory and repressive practice which took the Devil’s work in the world to its highest point. In the same period, however, Hispanic theologians seemed to hold a different view, a more cautious and moderate demonological theory. Throughout this work, we will analyse the anti-superstitition works written by Lope de Barrientos and The Formicarius , by Johannes Nider, as a starting point to identify, bearing in mind their respective political and cultural circles, two opposing views regarding the revolutionary representations of the Devil and, mainly, to assert the existence of two alternative processes for the construction of “Christian Others” in 15th. Century Europe. The Castilian case de serves particular consideration in view of the “issue of the New Christians” and the existence of certain power relationships which moulded and paved the way for the establishment of the Inquisition as the ultimate means for political and religious domination.

Abstract: This article demonstrates and analyses Johannes Nider’s reception of Thomas of Ireland’s Manipulus florum, a popular early fourteenth-century florilegium, in composing the fifth book of his Formicarius, a very influential text for the development of the gendered witch stereotype in the fifteenth century. It also examines the lemmata “Mulier” and “Coniugium” in the Manipulus, arguing that Thomas of Ireland’s construction of those topics was essentially misogamous, rather than misogynous, though its reception by Nider was informed by misogyny.