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Historical Bibliography Updated: June 17, 2026

De praestigiis daemonum.

Publication Details

Basel: Johannes Oporinus, 1563 CE.

Weyer was the first European physician to take an empirical, scientific approach to the study of mental illness. At the height of the witchcraft delusion he argued that witches were mentally ill women who deserved humane treatment instead of torture and punishment. Weyer “reduced the clinical problems of psychopathology to simple terms of everyday life and everyday, human, inner experiences” (Zilboorg). English translation by John Shea as Witches, devils, and doctors in the Renaissance. Johann Weyer, De praestigiis daemonum. Foreward by John Weber. Bingham, New York: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1991.

Thematic Classifications

Catalog MetadataReference Information
Entry Number#4916
Permanent Linkhttps://hom-sveltekit.fly.dev/entry/6054
Author Bio LinkWikipedia ↗
External URLde-praestigiis-daemonum

Geographic Context

Publication place: Basel

Mentioned in annotation: New York