Keywords: Malleus Maleficarum, infanticide, metamorphosis, witchcraft, Witchcraft in sixteenth century, What caused the witch craze in Europe, Witch hunt in Europe, Witch trials Early modern Europe is known for its climate of fear as highlighted by the moral panics surrounding the witch trials (Roberts and Naphy, 1997, p. 1). Repeated war and death from disease… Continue reading Witches in Sixteenth-Century Germany: The belief in witches, what they were accused of and why
Keywords: Der Kinderfresser, Wild Man, Witchcraft, Midwives, Cannibalism This Christmas, did your children make it to the naughty or nice list? The image of sixteenth-century Der Kinderfresser (‘the child eater’) is not dissimilar to the modern idea of Santa with large belly, large belt over a long coat, and large black boots, carrying a large… Continue reading Child Murderers within the wider Visual Culture of Infanticide and Cannibalism
Keywords: Witches, body hair, wild woman, werewolves, sexuality The concept of shape-shifting and representations of human-animal hybrids in both literary sources and the visual arts captured the early modern European imagination. This phenomenon is particularly evident in the prevalence of pictorial prints featuring these creatures dated in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, produced in… Continue reading Monstrous Women: Hair, Gender, and Sexuality in Early Modern German Prints
Dana K Rehn 