1 / 3
ALDE
96
-
FÖRNER (Friedrich). *Panoplia armaturæ Dei*.
See original version (French)
96
-
FÖRNER (Friedrich). *Panoplia armaturæ Dei*.
See original version (French)
Estimate €500 - €600
Voluntary lot
Description
FÖRNER (Friedrich). *Panoplia armaturæ Dei*. Ingolstadt, Gregor Hänlin, 1626. Small quarto, hardback in vellum with overbands, smooth spine, blue edges, traces of fastenings (contemporary binding). Second edition of this very rare treatise on witchcraft and demonology. The first edition had been published a year earlier at the same address.
Friedrich Förner (1568–1630), Vicar-General and Auxiliary Bishop of Bamberg, was one of the architects of the Counter-Reformation in Upper Franconia. His name remains associated with the witch hunts. ‘Förner has become infamous for his support of the Bamberg witch hunts, which claimed perhaps as many as a thousand victims between 1595 and 1631. Förner is generally considered to have played a leading role in initiating the trials. Scholars have called him the ‘spiritus rector’ of the witch hunts, a ‘ferocious witch-damner’, and the ‘mortal enemy of heretics and sorcerers’. ‘Förner’s fame as a witch-hunter rests primarily on a series of thirty-five sermons, published in 1626 under the title *Panoplia Armaturæ Dei*’, writes W. B. Smith.
An attractive copy in vellum with overlay. 17th-century handwritten inscriptions in the margin of the title page and on the front endpaper.
Scattered foxing.
William Bradford Smith, ‘Friedrich Förner, the Catholic Reformation, and Witch-Hunting in Bamberg’, Sixteenth Century Journal, vol. 36/1, 2005, pp. 115–128.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
About the sale
Antique books – Alchemy & the occult sciences
Auction location
Auction time
11/04/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits:
You may also like