Cannibalism and Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe: Reading the Visual Images

Author(s): Charles Zika

Reviewed work(s):
Source: History Workshop Journal, No. 44 (Autumn, 1997), pp. 77-105
Published by: Oxford University Press
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 ARTICLES AND ESSAYS

Figure 1. Jan Ziarnko, 'The witches' banquet'. Etching, detail from 'Description et
Figure du Sabbat des Sorciers', in Pierre de Lancre, 'Tableau de l'inconstance des
mauvais anges', Paris 1613.

Cannibalism and Witchcraft in Early

Modern Europe: Reading the Visual
Images
by Charles Zika

One of the characteristics fundamental to the image of the witch in popular

Western consciousness and culture is her cannibalism. 'Stick out your finger,
Hansel', asks the witch from the Brothers Grimm's well-known fairy tale,
in order to test whether she might begin to prepare for her feast of human
flesh.1 The witch from Hansel and Gretel is probably the most graphic and
widely known example of such a figure. She represents the persistence
within European culture of the terrifying fantasy of being cooked and eaten,
and one of the most important ways in which the fantasy continues to be
embodied and reproduced. The critical stage in the cultural fabrication of
such witch figures as cannibals occurred between the fifteenth and seven-
teenth centuries and drew on various European traditions: on earlier Chris-
tian anti-heretical polemic, on the folklore of blood-sucking vampires and

History Workshop Journal Issue 44 (CHistory Workshop Journal 1997

78 HistoryWorkshopJournal

werewolves,and on the literatureconcerningthe exotic peoples at the ends

of the earth,the ancientanthropophages.Cannibalismwas one of the Euro-
pean metaphorsfor otherness,for the non-civilized;but since the sacrifice
and eating of one's God was a belief and act of liturgicalpracticeat the
centre of Christianity,and especiallyso in the later middle ages, cannilal-
ism was also a metaphorlocated threateninglyat the centre of the Euro-
pean psyche. And it was in the early modern period, through the
instrumentsof theological and legal treatises,judicialtrials, pastoraland
moralizingliterature,romanceand folklorictales, and also throughvisual
images,that cannibalismwas graftedon to the image of the maleficwitch.
As the witch was feminizedand demonized,she was also representedas a
savagefigure,an evil mother,who killed and ate youngchildren.
This articleis an attemptto exploresome aspectsof this culturalprocess
of the fashioningof the cannibalisticwitchin earlymodernEurope,and in
particularthe contributionmade by the visualimagescreatedthroughthe
relativelynew technologiesof printand print-making.Literarytreatiseson
witchcraftas well as evidence given in the witch trialsof the period often
include accountsof how witches suck humanblood, or how they cut up,
cook and eat humanflesh. In most cases these practicesare describedas
part of the witches' sabbath,duringwhich witches pay homage to Satan,
renounce Christand Christiansymbols,engage in dancing,have sex with
each other and with devils, and also take partin a banquetwhichincludes
the eating of young children.2Curiously,however,the visual artistsof the
period represent explicit acts of cannibalisminfrequently;they tend to
simply allude to cannibalismthroughimages of body-partsand dismem-
berment.And when explicitacts of cannibalismare depicted,these images
tend to occur at a late date: almost all of them date from after the begin-
ning of the seventeenthcentury.3
The implicitformof the representationof cannibalismin suchimages,as
well as theirquite late appearancewithinthe developingvisuallanguageof
witchcraftin this period, suggestsome guidelineswhichwe need to adopt
in readingand analyzingthem.Firstly,we shouldnot regardthemprimarily
as pictorialversionsof literaryaccountsof cannibalism,drawnfrom a long
polemic againstexotic peoples which was applied to heretics in the High
MiddleAges and laterto witches.This visualtraditionmustbe understood
as enjoyingconsiderableindependencefromthe literary,andis for the most
part a fifteenth- and sixteenth-centuryinvention. The depictions of the
witchas cannibaldo not simplymediatea literarytradition,but developout
of the particularconcernsand anxietiesrepresentedin the visualcultureof
the fifteenthto seventeenthcenturies.Secondly,the differentwaysin which
cannibalismis linkedto witchcraftmayallowus to identifythe differentcul-
turaldiscoursesand social anxietiesto whichsuch imageswere a response,
and even the mannerin whichthese anxietiessurfaceat differentpoints of
time. My analysiswill show,for instance,that in the earlysixteenthcentury
allusionsto the cannibalismof witchesseem closelylinkedto fearsof moral
 Cannibalismand Witchcraft 79

disorder, based on a female sexuality which is perceived as essentially

aggressive.Only later in the sixteenthcenturyis the cannibalismof witch-
craftlinkedto anxietiesaboutthe New World.This new visualdiscourseof
'the cannibalwithin',the identificationof the anti-humansavageryof the
cannibalwithinEuropeancultureas well as on its Americanperiphery,sug-
gests widespreadfears about social and religiousfragilityat this time. Such
anxietiesaboutfragilityare reflectednot only in the cannibalisticsavagery
of the practicesof witchcraft,but also in the representationof its victims.It
is now the body of the innocent child, a powerfulreligioussymbolwithin
the Christianpsyche,whichbecomes the special object of the witch'scan-
nibalisticviolence.

WITCHCRAFTAND CANNIBALISMIN THE IMAGES

OF THE SIXTEENTHAND SEVENTEENTHCENTURIES
Probablythe most explicit representationof the cannibalismof witchcraft
is to be found in the well-knownetching of the Polish artistJan Ziarnko,
which accompaniesthe 1613 edition of Pierre de Lancre's Tableaude
l'inconstance des mauvais anges.4 This complex and detailed representation
of the variousevents that occurat the sabbath,a visualizationof the events
describedin de Lancre'stext, includesin the bottomrightcornera scene of
the sabbathbanquet(fig. 1). In the middleof a table, at whichwitchesare
shown seated togetherwith their demonicpartners,a large servingdish is
depicted;and on the dish can be seen the variousbody-partsof a child.The
cannibalisticnatureof witchcraftis clearlyregisteredandsmallchildrenare
also identifiedas the most likely victims.The key to the etching,printed
below, providesthe viewer with furtherinformation:'Here are the guests
of the Sabbath,each with a demon at her side. And the only meat used at
this feast is from corpses, the flesh of those who have been hanged, the
heartsof unbaptisedchildren,and [meat]fromotheruncleananimalswhich
Christiansnever touch.'5Consumptionof food at the sabbathbanquetis
clearlynot limitedto cannibalism,and witchcraftis also linked to broader
notions of pollution.But for the viewer, the most prominentof the meats
consumedmust be that of young children.
Other contemporaryimages of witchcraftwhich depict the cooking of
humanfleshusuallyremainambiguousas to the purposeof this cooking.It
is unclearwhetherthey are representationsof cannibalism- at least in the
narrowersense of anthropophagy,the physicalconsumptionof humanflesh
- or whetherthey depict other purposesfor which humanflesh is cooked.
A clear exampleis a woodcut illustrationfrom FrancescoMariaGuazzo's
treatiseof 1608,the CompendiumMaleficarum,whichdepictsa female and
male witch roastinga child over a fire, the male bastingthe body with a
cooking spoon, while nearbyanothercouple are about to put a child in a
cookingpot (fig.2).6A vieweris likelyto have understoodthe scene as anal-
ogous to those depictionsof Amerindiancannibalismfoundthroughoutthe
80 History Workshop Journal

Figure 2. Unknown artist, 'Witches roasting a child'. Woodcut, from Francesco

Maria Guazzo, Compendium Maleficarum, Milan: Apud Haeredes August Tradati,
1626. [from Francesco Maria Guazzo, Compendium Maleficarum, ed. Montague
Summers, trans. E.A. Ashwin, Secaucus N.J.: University Books, 1974, p. 89]

Figure 3. Jacqutesde Gheyn II, 'Four witches cooking body parts', early 17th century.
Drawing, pen and brown ink, brown wash on brownish paper. New York,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest
 Cannibalismand Witchcraft 81

sixteenthcentury.In the firsthalf of the centuryin particular,roastingof

humanflesh on a spit constitutedone of the most commonimages of New
Worldcannibalismto featureon contemporarymaps.7An unusualfeature
of the Compendiumwoodcut, however, is that it does not depict the
butcheredbody-partson the grill or skeweredflesh on the spit which one
usuallysees in contemporaryimages of Amerindiancannibalism.Here we
have a full humanbody over a fire, exposed along its length, almost in an
act of consciousdisplayfor the viewer. And we can only surmisethat the
purposeof this displayis to stressthat this object of violent assaultcan be
no other than the body of a child.The couple in the backgroundwho hold
a child above a cooking pot also allude to such imagesof New Worldcan-
nibalismas found in Hans Staden'saccountof the Tupinamba,whichwas
firstpublishedin 1557andraninto nine editionsandtranslationsbefore the
end of the century;8but here also the humanflesh being preparedis clearly
shown to be that of a child.
The readersof Guazzo'stext would have learnt,however,that witches
cooked up the bodies of childrenin orderto use theirashesin powdersand
their fat and flesh in unguents.9The productionof such substanceswas the
main reason why witches sought human corpses and body-parts.Potions
and mixtureswhich includedthem would be used to carryout numerous
formsof sorcery;while a burninghand,the so-calledHand of Glorywhich
increasinglyappearson chimneysin images of witchcraftfrom the 1590s
(see fig. 4), was used to induce sleep in those whom witches sought to
poison, injure,rob or abduct.10But the use of humanfat or flesh in such
ways would not of itself define witches as cannibals.By the early seven-
teenth centuryhumansubstances,and in particularthe body-partsof chil-
dren, were being widely recommendedfor use in medical concoctions.11
The Guazzo woodcut of cooking witches (fig. 2) could be linked by the
viewer to the accompanyingtext and also to anotherwoodcutfound in the
very same chapter,which shows witchesdisinterringbodies, stealingthem
fromthe gallowsand dissectingthem.12Yet given thatin this latterwoodcut
only one of the three bodies shownappearsto be that of a child,the visual
connectionbetween the two woodcutsis not so strong;and a viewerwould
have been well able to drawon other visualmodels providedby imagesof
New Worldcannibalism.The specific narrowmeaning of cannibalismas
anthropophagyneed not be the associationwhichis beingmade,but rather
cannibalismas a violent and 'unnatural'savagery.The savageryand anti-
social characterof these couplesis definedthroughthe violencewhichthey
perpetrateagainstchildren,and this is underpinnedby the visualallusions
to contemporaryrepresentationsof cannibalism.
Similar visual allusions are displayed in a number of other roughly
contemporaryimages which associatewitches with the cooking of human
body-parts.The titlepage engravingof Peter Binsfeld's 1591 treatise on
witchcraft,a kind of montagecomposedof differentelements drawnfrom
the iconographyof witchcraft,includes the depiction of a female witch
82 HistoryWorkshopJournal

loweringa childheadfirstinto a cauldronwhichrestson a fire.13In a drawing

of c.1600by Jacquesde GheynII, on the other hand,a groupof fourfemale
witches and a cat are positioned arounda cauldron(fig. 3).14One of the
witchesis stirringthe contentsof the cauldronand has the lid temporarily
moved to the side; another witch, naked except for a loose fitting cloak,
carriesa huge plate on whichcan be seen variousbody-parts,amongthem
a humanhand, a foot and two small humanheads, and she appearsto be
about to add them to the brew. While the drawingpresents a scenario
similarto one of the illustrationsof ritualcannibalismaccompanyingHans
Staden'swell-knownaccount,it remainsunclearwhetherthe fleshaddedto
the brew is meantto be consumedor to be used for the witches'salvesand
potions. However, the centralwitch'sprominentlydisplayedand sagging
breasts, hangingbefore her into the plate of body-parts,provide a very
strongsuggestionthatthis is at least intendedas a scene of anti-nurture,and
that what the witchcarriesare the body remainsof children.
Fromthe earlyseventeenthcenturyan increasingnumberof witchscenes
include the bodies of dead children.Whereasfrom the earlier sixteenth
centurywe findratherindistinguishablehumanandanimalskullsandbones
in visual representationsof witches' activities,15in the late sixteenth and
seventeenth centuriesthe presence of dead childrenas a distinguishable
categoryis marked.This is in additionto the living childrenwho are also
often featured:either as the offspringof female witches and often shown
ridingwild beasts togetherwith their mothers,a reminderto the viewer of
the sexual licence of these women;16or as childrenoffered to the devil to
be indoctrinatedin the demonicartsand assistthe witchesin their various
tasks.17The Flemishartist,FransFranckenthe Younger,for instance,who
produced many drawingsand also paintingsof witch scenes in the first
decade of the seventeenthcentury,includesthe body of a dead child in a
number of his images. In one drawingheld by the British Museum,for
example,whichdepictsa wild and eerie gatheringof witches(fig.4), a dead
childlies at the feet of the readingwomanseen at the bottomof the drawing,
positionedbetween the uprightjug and what seem to be an animaland a
humanskull.The seated womenare clearlyengagedin necromanticrituals,
indicatedby the circle,candlesandskullto theirleft, andthe skeletonwhich
embracesthem. And somehowrelevantto those ritualsis the dead child at
their feet. Francken'sdrawingseems to have been one of the principal
sources for the right half of a much better known image, a vast and spec-
tacularetching of a witches'assemblydesignedby MichaelHerr and pro-
duced by MattheusMerianthe Elder in 1626.18In the bottom rightcorner
(fig. 5) a groupof women similarto those seen in Francken'sdrawing(fig.
4) are shown consulting magic ritual books, while on the round barrel
nearby are displayed the various paraphernaliaassociated with these
witches'magic- sword,candle,variousbody-partsand what seems to be a
mannikin.And once againat theirfeet, in the proximityof a humanand an
animalskull, the small body or body-partsof a dead childcan be seen in a
 Cannibalism and Witchcraft 83

.' t
* :N ) 7

Figure 4. Franz Francken II, 'An assembly of witches', early 17th century. Drawing,
pen and ink, gray/brown wash. London, British Museum, Department of Prints and
Drawings
84 History Workshop Journal

Figure 5. Matthaeus Merian the Elder, after Michael Herr, 'Witchcraft' (detail),
1626. Etching. London, British Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings

basket. The child has been dismembered or the basket also contains a limb
from another child. Yet there is little visual communication as to the par-
ticular significance of this child and the viewer would most likely connect it
to the body-parts nearby, clearly used in ritual magical practice. The texts
located below the etching, on the other hand, do make reference to acts of
cannibalism: while the German verses simply refer to 'the misuse of chil-
dren in baskets, the result of premature births', the Latin hexameters speak
of 'the limbs and half-eaten body-parts of children'.19The visual references
to cannibalism, in distinction to the literary, are again rather implicit, allud-
ing to infanticide and dismemberment rather than consumption, and
playing with notions of evil motherhood.
There is one quite unique image from the early seventeenth century
which makes a fairly explicit statement about witches as a cannibalistic
group. This is a drawing by Jacques de Gheyn (fig. 6)20 which represents the
vampirism of witches and is probably related to the literary and possibly
oral tradition of witches as lamiae, night-flying and cannibalistic harpies. A
female witch, half naked and hair tied back, is depicted enfolding and biting
the neck of a limp boy in a smoky room. The candle, the Hand of Glory and
 Cannibalism and Witchcraft 85

Figure 6. Jacques de Gheyn II, 'Witchcraft scene with a vampire', c. 1600. Drawing,
pen and brown gall ink over black chalk. Washington, National Gallery of Art, Ailsa
Mellon Bruce Fund
86 HistoryWorkshopJournal

the magicalsignson the wall,the ratandbones on the ground,andthe string

of garlicimmediatelyoutside the room, all tend to supportthe impression
of a scene whichinvolvesmagicalpractices.The attackof the witchas one
involvingsupernaturalforce is communicatedby the smoke billowingfrom
the point at whichcontactis made with the child, smoke in whichthree or
more bat-like creaturescan be discerned,and which is linked to an owl
seated on a ledge in the wall above.The exaggeratedlyheroicpostureof the
child (possiblya play on the sixteenth-centuryreligiousiconographyof the
so-calledNotgottes,the displayof the mutilatedand brokenbody of Christ
by God the Fatheranalogousto the Marianpietd)21 helpsstylizeandempha-
size the sense in which witchcraftrepresentsthe transgressionof natural
feminineand maternaltendencies.Here is a child presentedas a limp and
lifeless form, suckeddry of its life force by the female form crouchedover
it; she invertsand betraysthose more commonimagesof women'snurtur-
ing and life-givingcapacitiesas they cradleor embracetheirchildren,or in
the likeness of Maryor God the Father,as they expresstheir sorrowover
the dead son in their arms.
It is clear from the above evidence that with very few exceptionsvisual
artistshad little directinterestin representingwitches as anthropophages.
In this they seem quite differentto the authorsof contemporarytreatises
concerned with witchcraft.Apart from a few exceptions, visual artists
simplyhintedat anthropophagyandwere more concernedto communicate
the bloodthirstysavageryand ferocity associatedwith these acts. To draw
on Peter Hulme's discussionof cannibalism,this emphasiscommunicates
the core meaningof cannibalismwithinthe forgingof Europeancultureand
identity:cannibalismcannotbe limitedto the consumptionof humanflesh;
it involves a ferociousconsumption,a bloodthirstysavagery.It is a projec-
tion upon the supposed perpetratorsof these acts of values which are in
directoppositionto those by whichthe communitydefinesand marksitself
off from its others.22
In the case of the representationof witchcraft,allusions to the con-
sumptionof humanflesh are partof a muchbroaderand more spectacular
scenarioof ritualisticdismembermentand the exploitationof humanbody-
parts for the evil ends of others. Human bodies are clearlycentralto the
bloodyritualsof witchcraft;but whetherthey are usedin banquets,in salves,
powdersor potions, whetherthey enable witchesto travelthroughthe air,
to poison victims,produceinfertility,destroycropsor otherwiseperpetrate
evil, is of secondaryinterest.The precisepurposesto whichbody-partsare
put is not so important;it is more criticalthat all suchuses are imaginedas
annihilatingand appropriatinghuman identity and reducingit to the will
and organizationof the other.For that reasonvisualrepresentationsof the
meeting places of witches are strewnwith the skulls,body-partsand even
the lifeless corpses of their victims;and on a few occasions,they are also
representedas places of bloody execution, where witches decapitateand
dismemberthe bodies of their victims.23Witchesare not simplyperceived
 Cannibalismand Witchcraft 87

as enactingthe most terribledeeds imaginableagainstindividuals;they are

also represented as transgressingthe most deeply-felt social codes and
taboos by appropriatingfor themselves the sword of justice, the right of
powerover life andlimbheld by dulyconstitutedauthority,andtherebyare
shown to invertand threatenthe very foundationsof social order.

THE IMAGINGOF CANNIBALISMIN THE SIXTEENTH

CENTURY
The clear differencebetween a literarytraditionwhichidentifiescannibal-
ism as one of the defining attributesof witchcraftand a visual tradition
which approachesthe representationof cannibalismby way of indirect
allusion, suggests that a visual languageof witchcraftis being developed
only gradually during the sixteenth century and to some extent quite
independentlyof the literarytradition.Even if we acknowledgethat the
representationof cannibalismwithinscenesof witchcraftneeds to be under-
stood as partof a broadernarrativeof the dismembermentandritualappro-
priation of the human body, it needs also to be recognised that a visual
tradition of representingcannibalismhad long been available to visual
artists.This certainlyremainsa puzzlingand unexpectedcharacteristicof
the historicaldevelopmentof a witch figurein early modernEurope:why
did artistsnot incorporatethe visuallanguageof cannibalisminto theirrep-
resentationof witchcraftmorepromptlyand also more systematically?why
did they not simply import images of 'the cannibal',known both from a
range of late medieval Europeantraditionsand from the burgeoningsix-
teenth-centuryreproductionsof the New World,into theirvisualdepictions
of witchcraft?In order to see this problem more clearly and to move
towardsa possibleanswer,it is necessarythereforeto provideat least a brief
account of the models of cannibalismwhich were availableto European
artiststhroughthe sixteenthcentury.
Previousto the sixteenthcenturyvisual representationsof cannibalism
are fairlyinfrequent.From the eleventh centuryillustrationsof a number
of cannibalssurvivein the fabuloustales of the races of giantswho live in
the East.24From the thirteenthcenturywe have the famousminiatureof a
tartareating a humanleg and roastinga body on a spit, found in Matthew
of Paris'sHistoriaMaiora,a testamentto the xenophobicpropagandaof
ChristianEuropeat the time of the Crusades.25 And in the fifteenthcentury
the very popularand widely disseminatedcollectionsof travellers'tales by
MarcoPolo, Odoricof Pordenoneand Mandevillewere appropriatelyillus-
tratedwith representationsof the cannibalswho live in distantlands.26As
well as showingcannibalschoppingup humanflesh on a butcher'sbenchor
roastingon a spit, almostall these pre-sixteenth-centuryimagesalso depict
the physicalconsumptionof flesh. And the humanflesh they consume is
usually in the form of limbs, body-partswhich are easily recognizableas
human.
88 History Workshop Journal

Figure 7. Theodore de Bry, 'Tupinamba grilling human body parts'. Engraving, in

Theodore de Bry (ed.), Americae Tertia Pars, Frankfurt 1592, p. 179. New York
Public Library,Rare Books and Manuscript Division; Astor, Lennox and Tilden
Foundations

The number of these images increases dramatically in the early sixteenth

century, as part of what Stephen Greenblatt has called 'the great represen-
tational machine', which depicted Amerindians as cannibalistic 'savages' at
whose behaviour Europeans were invited to wonder and also recoil.27From
the first Augsburg broadsheet of 1505 which presents a group of South
American Tupi, of whom one is shown devouring a human limb, such
images are disseminated very quickly and extensively.28 They are made
especially popular through the widely-copied image of the South American
cannibali attributed to Hans Holbein, which was included in the Grynaeus
maps of 1532, 1537 and 1555. In such images the actual physical consump-
tion of human flesh is not always depicted, but heads and limbs are shown
hanging from trees or tents, while Indians are shown cutting up human flesh
in the manner of butchers and then cooking it on a spit. In the second half
of the sixteenth century, the spit gives way to the use of the grill or barbe-
cue. This is especially so with the copiously illustrated editions of the ritual
cannibalism of the Brazilian Tupinamba, reported and made famous
through the various editions of Hans Staden's famous account of these
 Cannibalismand Witchcraft 89

'wild,naked and furious,cannibals'.29Staden'swork was firstpublishedin

1557,and then republishedand translatednine times before the end of the
century.The illustrationsto thisworkpopularizedthe mainelementsof can-
nibalisticimageryas it had developed from the early years of the century,
and these in turnwere disseminatedfurtherby other authorsand especially
by map-makers.And then the imageswere given almostcanonicalstatusin
the narrativesof Europeanvoyagesto Americaput togetherand illustrated
in variouseditionsby Theodorede Bry and his sons between the 1590sand
1620s.30
De Bry's representationsof cannibalism(fig. 7), new engravingswhich
are neverthelessbased on the very simple and stylisticallyprimitivewood-
cuts used in the originaledition of Staden'swork, demonstratehow effec-
tively the grill could be used to representthe cannibalisticsavageryof the
Amerindians.Whereas the grill was an element central to the culinary
culture of the Tupinamba,its widespreadadoption by European artists
probably had little to do with the demands of ethnographicalaccuracy.
More importantwas the very graphicand sensationalisticmannerin which
the grillallowed Amerindiancannibalismto be representedto a European
audience.There could be no doubtthat these imageswouldbe read as acts
of inhumansavagery.Unlike the earlierimageswhichmade use of the spit
and whose meaninghad to be clarifiedby recourseto scenes of dismem-
bermentor at least the presence of body-parts,here the horrorsare more
clearly contained within a single image. And the horror could be read
repeatedly by the viewer's eye as it scanned each piece of the human
anatomycarefullydisplayedupon the grill.Each piece representeda narra-
tive of violence and fear, furtheremphasizedby the mannerin whichthose
pieces are then consumedby individualcannibals.De Bry is representinga
cannibalsociety involvingmen, women and children;a complex narrative
scenario, in which the viewer can experience the horrorsof cannibalism
repeatedlythrougheach of the 'savages'represented.
Such images of Amerindiancannibalismwere seldom used within the
iconographyof witchcraft,even if the connectionsbetweenthemwerebeing
clearly drawnby visual artistsin the latter part of the sixteenth century.
Crispinde Passe,for instance,in an engravingafterMartinde Vos andprob-
ably to be dated in the 1580s,depictsboth witches and Amerindiancanni-
bals as children of the god-planet Saturn.31The French engraverHenri
Leroy produceda printin the earlyseventeenthcenturywhichwas heavily
based on that of de Passe.32Both Crispinde Passe and Henri Leroy follow
the common sixteenth-centuryiconographyof the Amerindiancannibal:a
male figurechops up parts of a humanbody on a table, while two women
place variousbody-partsto be cooked on a grillover the fire.And these are
thenlinkedto a scene of necromancywhichincludesbothflyinganddancing
witchesin the opposite cornerof the print.Indeed the skeleton whichfea-
turesin the scene of necromancymay have been conceivedas the link with
the use of body-partsin the cannibalisticritualsof the Amerindians.
90 History Workshop Jolurnal

3-11~~~~~~

flIJPRMA (,fIlfTOFk3 *SNtMl *Af\fTh\S^OLY trPI

Figure 8. Jacob Bink, after Rosso Fiorentino, 'Saturn', 1530. Engraving [from
Walter L. Strauss (ed.), The Illustrated Bartsch, vol. 16. Early German Masters,
New York 1980, p. 26.1
 Cannibalismand Witchcraft 91

The explicit basis for this association between witch and cannibal is the
figure of the classical anthropophage Saturn, the planetary divinity and
Roman god of agriculture, who from the late classical period had been
widely identified with the Greek god, Kronos. The cannibalism of
Saturn/Kronos, and also his sexual violence, was well known to the six-
teenth-century educated viewer, even though it is not represented explicitly
in the de Passe print. But in numerous other representations Saturn is
shown devouring the head of one of his children while another cringes fear-
fully before him; in an engraving by Johann Ladenspelder he rips skin from
the body of a child; or in the case of Jakob Bink (fig. 8), he sinks his teeth
into the child's flesh.33Late medieval mythographers and also the fifteenth-
century translators of Arabic sources had transmitted the classical story of
Saturn's castration of his father Uranus and the devouring of his children.
By the late middle ages, the sinister characteristics of the mythical Saturn -
his old age, malevolence, violence, tyranny and so on - were stressed. These
characteristics were then also attributed to his 'children', those who lived
under his planet - criminals, cripples, beggars, the elderly and low-born, the
poor and those involved in vulgar and dishonourable trades. Increasingly
from the late fifteenth century, Saturn's children also included the dead,
magicians and witches; and these relationships were given pictorial form in
the Planetenkinder images disseminated through popular almanachs, calen-
dars and astrological handbooks. But while witches were the children of the
anthropophage Saturn, they were seldom represented as physically devour-
ing their children, as was their father.
Striking models for the visual imaging of cannibalism were also available
to sixteenth-century artists in forms more common within contemporary
public culture. The common image of hell in various visual narratives, and
in particular those of the Last Judgement, was a huge mouth, devouring the
sinners led in by demons. By the sixteenth century this hell-mouth took on
other quite spectacular forms. In a stunning anti-clerical broadsheet which
was part of the Reformation's propaganda attack on the Roman church, for
instance, the clergy are shown feasting within the huge mouth of a monstrous
bird-like she-devil. They receive food which is being prepared on fires above
them on the monster's head. And some of the food which is being prepared
looks very much like human limbs.34This image of the devouring hell-mouth
was also transferred to representations of the figure of Satan or Lucifer, poss-
ibly under the influence of the literature associated with the eleventh-century
Vision of Tundale. As a result, Satan was often depicted as a huge monster
who grabs sinners and stuffs them into his vast devouring mouth - or in the
case of representations influenced by Dante's Inferno, into his three mouths.
The image features in a number of late medieval frescoes of the Last Judge-
ment, such as those by Taddeo di Bartolo and Giusto da Menabuoi. And in
the sixteenth century it is more broadly disseminated through the medium
of print. One well-known image of Satan then, is of a devouring cannibal
from whose mouth hang the mangled limbs and bodies of his victims.35
92 History Workshop Journal

MSt9,
Stadtbibliothek, Nor.K. fo.5I
I''1

StadtbiliothekMS No.K.44 o5
 Cannibalismand Witchcraft 93

Related to the image of Satan,and especiallypopularwithin fifteenth-

and sixteenth-centuryGerman culture, was the carnival image of the
Narrenfresser.This was the image of the fool who devouredother fools, a
symbol for moralizing reformers of the all devouring and destructive
characteristicsand consequencesof sin, and a more generalsymbolof the
bodily excesses and violence associatedwith the celebrationof carnival.
This cannibalisticfool featuredin the workof ThomasMurner;while Hans
Sachshad writtena Spruchabout it, whichwas then illustratedby Erhard
Schon in a single-leafbroadsheetwoodcut of about 1530.36But the figure
must have achieved widespreaddisseminationthrough its incorporation
into the publicfestivitiesof carnival.In Nuremberg,for instance,a Narren-
fresserwas featuredon the centralSchembartcarnivalfloat, the so-called
Holle, in 1508 and 1522.37The Schembartbiucher, books producedlater in
the sixteenth centurywhich includedillustrationsof the differentannual
floats,depictthe figurefrom the float of 1508as a beardedand long-haired
giant dressed in carnivalcostumne,leaning over the walls of a castle, and
devouringone fool afterthe other (or in otherversions,children),whichhe
pulls from a bag at his feet. In the Holle of 1522 (fig. 9), a cannibalfool is
againshownin carnivalcostume,withthe lowerhalfof a nakedchild'sbody
hangingfromhis mouth,while he holds up anotherchild in front of him by
the leg. In 1516the Holle also featuresa cannibalscene. But this time it is
a large wolf, which the grimacingfaces on its knees, chest and stomach
clearly identify as a devil: he devours old women in some versions and
young childrenin others.38
The populartraditionsassociatedwiththe Kinderfresser, the devourerof
children,are quite independentof carnivaltraditions,and their strengthin
the sixteenthcenturyis demonstratedby the mannerin whichthe illustra-
tors of the Schembartbucher representchildrenas the victimsof attackby
the cannibalogre, even though the text makes no referenceto them. The
main difference between these Kinderfresserimages and contemporary
images of the Narrenfresseror of Saturnis the intentionallyfrightening
spectacleof the manychildrenshownbeing abductedby the ogre. In Hans
Weiditz'sgraphicwoodcut of a Kinderfresserfrom c. 1520,39for instance,
three childrenare depictedsquirmingand screamingin a bag whichhangs
fromthe ogre'sneck;threeothersare held or pinnedbackby the ogre'sarm
and one of them shits itself with fright;while the remainingchild hangs
head-firstand bloodied from the ogre'slargemouth.
In other seventeenth-centurywoodcuts of Kinderfresser,children are
similarlydepicted,imprisonedin bags whichhangfrom the ogre's neck, or
in the pocketsof his largecoat.40And mostimportantly,the half-eatenbody
of a child is always shown in very prominentfashion, hangingfrom the
ogre'smouth.Likewisein the case of the well-knownKindlifresserof Bern,
a wooden sculpturefrom about 1545 which surmountsthe fountainin the
Kornhausmarkt,the ogre is stuffinga child's head into his mouth while
other childrenare positionedbelow.41Some scholarsread this cannibalistic
94 History Workshop Journnal

Figure 10. Unknown artist, 'Cannibalism in Reuss and Littau'. Woodcut, from a
broadsheet, Ein Erschrockenliche doch Warhaftige grausame Hungers nott Und
Pestilenzische kiag so im Landt Reissen unnd Littaus furgangen im 1573 Jar
(Munich: Adam Berg 1573) [from Max Geisberg, The German Single-Leaf
Woodcut, 1550-1600, ed. Walter Strauss, New York 1975, vol. I, p. 102.]

Figure 11. Jacques de Gheyn II, 'Witches at work under an arched vault', 1604.
Drawing, pen and brush with brown and grey ink, Oxford, Ashmolean Museum
 Cannibalismand Witchcraft 95

ogre as a murderousJew figure,relatedto a case of ritualmurderin Berne

in 1294,which seems to have been furtherdeveloped on the model of the
Simon of Trent case in the later fifteenthcentury.Others relate it to the
close connectionwhich develops between Saturnand Jews in the later fif-
teenth century,whichis most clearlyrepresentedin an almanachwoodcut
of Peter Wagnerpublishedin Nurembergin 1494, in which the figureof
Saturndevouringa child is clearlyidentifiedas a Jew by his hat and Jewish
badge.42Kinderfresser, Saturn,Jew,Narrenfresser,devouringSatanwiththe
hell-mouth- these are all discretefigureswithinthe late medievalpsyche,
but at timesthey tend to adoptelementstakenfromthe other,as they come
to representthe savagecannibal.
Cannibalacts in the sixteenth century were not only depicted as the
deeds of individual mythical and prototypicalfigures. They were also
depicted as part of the general chroniclingof outbreaksof cannibalism
withinEuropeansociety.The MunichprinterAdamBerg,for instance,pub-
lished a broadsheetwhichillustratedrecent events in Reuss and Littauin
1573(fig. 10). The text of the broadsheetrecountedhow a recentfaminein
these regionsof north-easternEuropewasso severethatthe poorpeasantry
cooked the flesh of any they could subdue. In Samagetiaone man was
known to have slaughteredand cooked thirteenmen, whose flesh he and
the membersof his householdthen ate. From Reuss there were stories of
parentseating their own childrenand of otherscuttingdown the bodies of
criminalsfromthe gallowsand the wheel in orderto devourthem.And the
woodcutillustratedsuch scenes very graphically.In the backgroundbodies
are being removedfromthe gallowsandwheel;in the foregroundone body
is being systematicallydismemberedwhile men and women are shown
gnawingat various humanbody-parts,and one man in the foregroundis
aboutto consumea childin the mannerof a Saturnor Kinderfresser. Body-
partsare also depictedon a spit, in preparationfor the roastingwhichcan
be seen in the centre left background.As this scene of hungercannibalism
shows,artistshad visualmodels of both Americanand Europeancannibal-
ism to drawon when depictingthe activitiesof witches.43
Othermodelsfor the visualrepresentationof the consumptionof human
flesh by Europeanswere not lackingin the later sixteenthand earlyseven-
teenth centuries.The atrocitiesof the Frenchwarsof religionin the 1570s,
for instance,led to claims and counter claims of cannibalismand images
played an importantpart in this propagandawar. Etchingsfrom Richard
Versteganus' Theatrum Crudelitatum hereticorum nostri temporis of 1587
depicted in graphicdetail and full-pageformat the terribleatrocitiesper-
petratedby the Huguenotsagainstthe Catholics.44 Amongthe scenesof dis-
embowelmentand terriblebutcherywas the depictionof a priestwho was
forcedto eat his genitalsafterthey had been roastedon a grill.Here the act
of cannibalismwas representediconographicallyby means of the grill, a
visual code alreadywell knownfrom images of cannibalismin the Ameri-
cas. Howeverin othercases,as in a sensationalistcontemporarybroadsheet
96 HistoryWorkshopJournal

relatingthe horriblecrimesof gravediggersin the Silesiantown of Franken-

stein in 1606,the act of cannibalismis directlyrepresented,by depictingone
of the gravediggersbiting into the flesh of a child.45Alongside the disem-
bowellingof corpsesand the preparingof a cauldronon the fire,the viewer
can clearlyrecognizecannibalismas an act of oral aggressionand physical
consumption- in this case, possiblya depictionof the chargethat some of
the gravediggersate the raw heartsof unbaptizedchildren.

CANNIBALISTICWITCHESAND CULTURAL
MEANINGS
Althoughthe relationshipbetweenwitchesandcannibalsis well attestedin
the visual representationsof the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
witches are seldom depicted engagingin the oral aggressionand physical
consumptionfound in other contemporaryrepresentationsof cannibalism.
Rather, it is the violence, bodily dismembermentand mutilation,which
seem to attractartiststo iconographicalanalogiesbetweenwitchesandcan-
nibals. And in some cases as that of Saturnthis mutilationalso includes
sexual castration.Jacquesde Gheyn's representationof witchcraftin his
drawingentitled 'Witchesat workunderan archedvault' (fig. 11) exempli-
fies the broadsixteenth-and seventeenth-centuryinterestin this theatreof
cruelty.Here the highlystylizedpose of the corpse, almost a figuredrawn
from the contemporaryrepresentationsof the anatomytheatre,is counter-
actedby the crouchedfiguresof the crones,the macabrehumanhead in the
foregroundandthe elongatedHandof Gloryat the back,by the horseskull
and the frog nailed to the floor.The vieweris likely to associatethis scene
of bodily dissectionwith other contemporarydepictionsof cannibalism,46
but the artistholds back,more concernedto concentratefocus on the rep-
resentationof cruelty.
This primaryemphasison destructionand crueltyin the visualimagesof
witchcraftin this period leads me to make the first of three conclusions
aboutthe culturalmeaningsto be drawnfromthe iconographicallinkingof
cannibalismand witchcraft.The iconographysuggests that the threat of
witchcraftthroughthe sixteenthandseventeenthcenturiesis associatedless
with external forces than with a threat experienced as internal, within
society in general and withinparticularindividuals.Witchcraftas external
threatis not totally absent,of course,and this is expressedmost spectacu-
larly in the imagingof the witch as werewolf.It is Georg Kress who pro-
vides us with a strikingbroadsheetfrom 1591 which presents300 witches
from the territoryof Julich who made a pact with the devil to transform
themselvesinto werewolves.47And the woodcut shows the wolves attack-
ing theirprey,tearingtheirlimbsapartanddevouringthem.Suchfearswere
visualizedin LucasCranach'ssingle-leafwoodcutof the werewolfandwere
also found in later broadsheets.48But for the most part the witch'sdanger
was related not to the oral aggressionof the wolf, but to the poisons,
 Cannibalismand Witchcraft 97

powdersand salves whichshe fabricatedby means of cooking humanflesh

and then employed against society. The threat of the witch was that she
could insinuateherself into everydaylife throughthe process of the food
chain, throughthe words of a curse, throughthe look of the eyes - essen-
tially througheverydayhumancontactand humanexchange.
Perhapsthe reticenceabout depictingwitchcraftvisuallyas oral aggres-
sion is related to the belief, increasingover the sixteenth century, that
witchesexercisetheirpowersfor the most partinternallyand also invisibly.
In other wordsit is not oral aggressionitself whichis primary,but fears of
defilementand disintegrationthroughthe appropriationand use of human
body-partsby witches.49The severed heads, hands and limbs whichtypify
scenes of witchcraftare visualcodes for the savage butcheryand dismem-
bermentby witches,analoguesof scenes of New Worldcannibalismwith its
body-partswhich are often depicted hanging like the ex votos found at
Europeanpilgrimshrines.But in contrastto relicsand ex votos whichsym-
bolize the hopes and means of integrationand healingwithinthe body of
society,body-partswithinwitchcraftare symbolsof societal disintegration.
They mark an increasinganxiety concerningdestructiveimpulseswithin
Europeansociety and fearsfor the integrityand identityof the body politic
itself.
In a numberof articlesI have arguedthatin the firsthalf of the sixteenth
centurya significantnumberof witchcraftimagesgive expressionto a pecu-
liarlysexual form of violence - and in most cases, a violence whichhas its
end in sexual emasculation.50 These images predominatein the first three
or fourdecadesof the sixteenthcenturyandrepresentthe destructivepower
of witchcraftexperienced as a threat levelled primarilyagainst proper
sexual orderand anxietiesconcerningthe capacityto maintainsuch order.
In the second half of the sixteenth,and into the seventeenthcentury,the
increasingrepresentationin scenes of witchcraftof body-partsand bodily
dismembermentand mutilationsuggestsmajornew concernsabout social
fragilityand disruption.This increasewould seem to signifya social recog-
nitionand also a culturalprojectionof those destructivesocialandreligious
divisionsunleashedwithinthe Europe of the 1560sand 1570s,and especi-
ally withinFrench,Flemishand Dutch territories;it is also documentedin
the accountsand images of mutilationand dismembermentfound in such
worksas Verstegan'sTheatre of Cruelties.51
But with respectto that limitednumberof representationsof witchcraft
whichincludemore overt imagesof cannibalisticaggressionand consump-
tion, a second set of culturalmeaningscan be drawn from the analysis.
These meaningshave to do with the role of childrenas victims,for in cases
of cannibalisticwitchcraftthe violence is especiallyenacted on the bodies
of children.In the earlydecadesof the sixteenthcenturychildrenfeaturein
witchcraftscenes either as offspringof the witches or as cupid-likeputti,
symbolic of venereal pleasures attributed to female witches and the
resultingsexualdisorder.Fromthe laterdecadesof the centurychildrenare
98 History Workshop Journal

1 _~~~~~~~~~~~~1

~~~~~~~~~~U-
_. _lt

Figure 12. Christoph Murer, 'Allegory on good government and the justice of the
Nuremberg city councillors', 1598. Stained glass (originally in the Nuremberg Town
Hall) Nuremberg, Stadtgeschichtliche Mu'seen,Fembohaus
 Cannibalismand Witchcraft 99

shownmoreoften as participantsin the witches'ceremonies.But frequently

too, they become the objects of witches'violence:they are presentedand
sacrificedto Satan;they are dismembered,cooked in cauldrons,roasted
over fires, served at table. In many ways this attack on children by the
female witch parallelsthe change from the rounded,voluptuous,sexually
alert and seductive witch to the post-menopausal,evil mother with her
saggingand dried up breasts,who denies nourishmentand care and gives
way to murderousinfanticide.The firstfigurepredominatesin the firsthalf
of the sixteenthcentury,the secondfigurein the secondhalfof the sixteenth
and seventeenthcenturies.
A very powerfulexample of the latterfigure,even if from the firsthalf
of the century, is an Italian engraving of c.1520 usually entitled 'Lo
Stregozzo'or 'The carcass',and producedeitherby AgostinoVenezianoor
by an artistfromthe school of MarcantonioRaimundi.52 It depictsa female
figure,who with her saggingbreasts,gapingmouth, extended tongue and
hair flying backwardsthrough the smoke or flame emanatingfrom the
vessel she holds,representsthe epitomeof the wild.She is seated as though
on the throne of a wagon, constructedfrom a giant, animalcarcass,which
is drawnby two young muscularmen at the front and borne up by two at
the rear.The processionof animaldead includesa goat, a bizarreram-like
beast with both feathersand hair,a skeletalbeast with a curiouswing and
a bird-likecreature;and is led by a goat on whichridesa youthwith a horn.
Withits strongresonancesof the unrulyand wild andits fascinatingimages
of the animal-dead,the processionprovidesthe settingfor the actionof the
centralfemale figure:she is crushingthe head of a smallchildwith her right
hand,despite the gestureof supplicationon its part,while two of the other
three children at her feet are already dead, the victims of her terrifying
destruction.The female figure probablyrepresentsthe goddess Artemis-
Diana, and the scene in general the so-called Wild Hunt or Wild Ride,
which by the sixteenthcenturywas closely identifiedwith the activitiesof
witches.
The increasingnumberof such destructivefemale figuresin the imagery
of witchcraftfrom the later sixteenthcenturyfits well with the increasing
numberof women accusedof witchcrafton the basis of harmdone to chil-
dren,and may also be relatedto the new energydirectedtowardsthe pros-
ecution of infanticidethroughmuch of Europe in this period.53But how
should we understandthis representationof the killing and mutilationof
childrenby evil motherfigureson a culturalsymboliclevel? how shouldwe
understandthe special place of the torturedbodies of childrenwithinthe
economy of this cannibalisticwitch symbolism?One particularimage in a
ratherunlikelymediumoffers,to my mind,a verysuggestiveclue:a stained
glass windowof 1598by the Zurichartist,ChristophMurer(fig. 12), which
was designedon commissionof the Nurembergcity council.
Murer'swindow depicts the victory and liberationof ChristianTruth.
Truthis shown seated in the clouds, holding a lighted candle and a bible
100 HistoryWorkshopJournal

opened at the words, 'Verbum Domini manet in aeternum'. Beneath her on

either side are Justiceand Peace and directlybelow her, the governmentof
Nurembergrepresentedby the figureof the Jungfrauenadler, the embodi-
ment of all of these virtues.My interestis in the symbolicobject of liber-
ation and conquest which is depicted in the lower section of the window.
The liberationnecessaryfor the victory of truth is that of a child, shown
naked and with golden hair, who lies chained to a stone slab while being
attacked.On his rightside an older male figurelunges at him with a knife
and the circularbadge on his rightshoulderclearlyidentifieshim as a Jew.
Oppositehim on the left of the child,a female figureholds on to the child's
hair as though to steady him for the thrustof the knife;and her wild hair
and saggingbreastsare the stereotypicalattributesof the sixteenth-century
witch. Behind is a heavily armed warrior directing his halberd at the
defencelesschild;and on the otherside a kingcovershis face withhis hands
in ordernot to witnessthe terriblescene in frontof him. The inscriptionat
the base of the windowhelps identifythe scene as an allegoryof Innocence
attackedby Avarice(old male), Envy (old female) and the Furiesof War
(warrior),whileAuthority(king)turnsa blindeye. And a numberof studies
have shownhow this was a well-workedallegoricaltheme of Murer'swhich
he had adaptedfrom TobiasStimmerin the 1580s and then used to con-
struct allegoricalimages of Innocence, Justice and Truth in the form of
Emblemataover the next twentyyears.54
While the image in the lower section of Murer'swindowmustbe under-
stood, therefore,as an allegoricaldepiction of the virtues and vices, one
cannot ignore the visual elements out of which the allegoryhas been con-
structed.55The figure with the knife is not simply a representationof
Avarice;he is also a representationof the Jew - and the Jew as ritualmur-
derer,who murdersChristianchildrento make use of theirblood in Jewish
magic,just as he murdersthe Christ-childin the formof the host.The object
of his attack,Innocence,is also a type of Christ-childfigurewhichis widely
disseminatedin the sixteenthand seventeenthcenturiesthroughthe visual
images of the child-martyrSimon of Trent and other alleged victims of
Jewishritualmurder.56And the assistantto the Jew/Avaricefigureis not
simplya personificationof Envy,but Envyin the formof the witch.Not only
does this identificationdrawon the criticalmannerin whichenvy features
in the social experienceand constructionof the witch figure,it represents
the witch as an old and dried up post-menopausalmother,envious of the
golden-hairedradianceof childhood, an assistantand accompliceof the
Christ-killingJew.Togetherwith the Jew we have here a kind of evil Holy
Family,a counterimage of what was becominga vibrantreligioussymbol
in BaroqueChristianityand whichtook its meaningfromthe new homolo-
gies being createdbetween politicaland domesticlife in sixteenth-century
Europe.
I believe that we have a clue here whichhelps us understandone of the
primaryanxietieswhichunderlythe increasingdepictionof witchesin the
 Cannibalismand Witchcraft 101

early seventeenthcenturyas those who kill, mutilateand cook up children.

As the atrocitiescommitted by Christianagainst Christianin sixteenth-
centuryEurope increase,as do those committedby Christianupon non-
Christianin the Americas,theybeginto be projectedmoreintensivelyupon
the traditionaland more recent enemies of Christiansociety. As a conse-
quence these enemies are increasinglyrepresentedas the destroyersof a
Christianinnocenceand integritywhichhas alreadybeen lost. This projec-
tion is one modelledon the ritualof the Eucharist,the ritualeatingof God
whichis at the heart of late medievalreligiouspractice.The promulgation
of the Eucharistas the centralChristianrite and symbol,and with it a form
of religiositywhichconcentratedon the flesh,blood andphysicalbody-parts
of Christ, was pursued with much energy in fourteenth- and fifteenth-
centuryChristianity."7 For these reasonsthe Eucharistwas able to become
such a sociallymeaningfuland powerfulsymbol,whether as a symbol for
communityor anti-community.And when the Eucharistitself became the
sourcefor suchviolent conflictwithinChristianityin the sixteenthcentury,
this providedan additionaland very powerfulstimulusfor Europeansto
projecttheir fears concerningloss of innocenceand integrityby appeal to
the traditionalsymbolsof the Eucharist- namely,as assaultson the Chris-
tian body in the form of the bodies of its children.
The attackof witcheson innocentchild-victimsought to be understood
thereforeas analogousto Jewishritualmurder.For especiallyin the case of
visual images the particularChristianstatus of the child-victimis left
unclear.Whetherthe childis baptizedor unbaptizedis for the mostpartleft
unexpressed;the artistdrawsmore on notions of the child as a symbol of
innocence.Thisis especiallyso in imagesas thatby ChristophMurer,where
the childis contrastedquite explicitlywith the old and dried-up,evil crone.
And whilethe murderousJewwas a terrifyingprojectionof Europeanfears
of the other, the savageryof witchescould functionas a far more inclusive
symbol.Witcheswere not externalto EuropeanChristiansociety but were
situatedfirmlywithinit. Each individual,andespeciallyeach woman,could
be perceivedas a potentialwitch- and by virtueof that, also as a potential
destroyerof the innocence and integrityof Christiancommunity.This, I
suggest, is another fundamentalmeaning which we can draw from the
increasingassociationof cannibalisticsavagerywith the figureof the witch
in the visualimagesof the later sixteenthand seventeenthcenturies:it sig-
nifieda growingfear for the disintegrationandloss of Christiancommunity
and identity.

NOTES

This essay first appeared in German in Hedwig Rockelein (ed.), Kannibalismus und euro-
paische Kultur, Forum Psychohistorie 6, edition diskord, Tubingen 1996. For assistance with
various parts of it I thank Adrienne Cameron, Elisabeth Kent, Helen Penrose, Hedwig
Rockelein, Lyndal Roper and Heidi Zogbaum.
102 History Workshop Journal

1 Bruder Grimm,Kinder-und Hausmarchen,7th edn, Gottingen 1857 (new edn, H.

Rolleke ed., Stuttgart1980),vol. 1, p. 106.
2 Nicole Jacques-Chaquin and Maxine Preaud(eds), Le sabat des sorciersen Europe
(15e-18esiecles),Grenoble1993;NormanCohn, Europe'sInnerDemons.TheDemonization
of Christiansin MedievalChristendom,2nd edn, London 1993, pp. 72, 142-5, 172-5, 205;
Richardvan Dulmen, 'Imaginationdes Teuflischen.NachtlicheZusammenkunfte,Hexen-
tanze,Teufelssabbate', in van Dulmen(ed.), Hexenwelten,MagieundImaginationvom16-20.
Jahrhundert, Frankfurtam Main1987,pp. 94-130.
3 For the few visual depictionsof the witches' sabbathin the sixteenth century,see
CharlesZika, 'Les partiesdu corps,Saturneet le cannibalisme:repr6sentationsvisuellesdes
assembleesdes sorcieresau 16esiecle',in Jacques-Chaquin andPreaud(eds), Le sabatdessor-
ciers,pp. (389-418)390-1 n.2.
4 StanislawaSawicka,'JanZiarnko,peintre-graveur polonais,et son activitea Paris',in
La Franceet la Polognedansla relationartistique,annuairehistoriqueeditepar la Bibliotheque
polonaisede Paris1, 1938,pp. (102-257) 160-61,Catalogueno. 7, fig. 24; van Dulmen (ed.),
Hexenwelten(see n. 2), pp.352-3;Pierrede Lancre,Tableaude l'inconstancedesmauvaisanges
et demons,ed. Nicole Jacques-Chaquin, Paris1982.
5 'Voilales Convivesde l'assemblee,ayantchacuneun Demonpresd'elle;Et en ce festin,
ne se sertautreviande,que charoignes,chairde pendus,coeursd'enfansnonbaptisez,et autres
animauximmondes,du tout horsdu commerceet usagedes Chrestiens. . .'
6 Thisimageis the only woodcutin the 1608editionof Guazzo'streatise(Milan:Haere-
des August.Tradati)not to be reproducedin the 1626edition.See alsothe reprintin Francesco
Maria Guazzo, CompendiumMaleficarum,ed. MontagueSummers,trans. E.A. Ashwin,
SecaucusNew Jersey1974,p. 89.
7 See the Portuguesemapof KunstmannII andMartinWaldseemuller's CartaMarinaof
1516(in Susi Colin,Das Bild des Indianersim 16.Jahrhundert, Idstein1988,pp. 296-8, K. 1);
the Grynaeusmap,firstpublishedin JohannHuttich,NovusOrbisRegionum,Basel 1532,and
then in 1537 and 1555 (Colin, Bild des Indianers,pp. 21, 198-9, B. 29); Fries'seditions of
Ptolemyin 1522,and his own worldmap of 1525,1527and 1530 (Colin,Bild des Indianers,
pp. 194-5 (B. 22), 197 (B. 24), 301-2 (K. 7), 410 (fig.23).
8 Hans Staden,Brasilien:Die wahrhaftigehistorieder wilden,nackten,grimmigenMen-
schfresser-Leute, ed. GustavFaber,trans.UlrichSchlemmer,Stuttgart1984,p. 262; Gereon
Sievernich(ed.), Americade Bry 1590-1634,Amerikaoder die Neue Welt.Die Entdeckung
einesKontinentsin 346 Kupfersticken, BerlinandNew York1990,p. 141 (III, 2, cap. 29).
9 Guazzo,CompendiumMaleficarum, pp. 89-90, Lib. II, c. II.
10 Guazzo,CompendiumMaleficarum, pp. 84-6, Lib.II, c. I-II. The accountin Guazzois
basedon the statementof one WelschAntoniusfromGuermingenin the territoryof the Duke
of Lorrainein 1589, found in Nicholas Remi, Daemonolatria,Das ist Von Unholdenund
ZauberGeistern,Frankfurt1598,p. 240 (II, cap. 3). The manusgloriaeis describedin some
grimoiresas the left handof a personwho has been hanged,whichis then treatedand dried.
The fingersserveas lightswhichburnwitha blue flameandunlikewaxcan be used againand
again. See Rossell Hope Robbins, Encyclopaediaof Witchcraftand Demonology,London
1959,p. 241;EduardHoffmann-Krayer andHansBachtold-Staubli (eds), Handworterbuch des
deutschenAberglaubens,Berlinand Leipzig1927,vol. II, pp. 229-233('Diebslichter').
11 Piero Camporesi, The IncorruptibleFlesh. Bodily Mutationand Mortificationin
Religionand Folklore,Cambridge1988,pp. 12-24;Camporesi,Breadof Dreams:Food and
Fantasyin EarlyModernEurope,trans.David Gentilcore,London1989,pp. 44-9.
12 Guazzo,CompendiumMaleficarum (see n. 6), p. 89, Lib.II, c. II.
13 PetrusBinsfeld,TractatVonBekanntnuss derZaubererundHexen,Munich:AdamBerg
1591;the artistis unknown.The imageis reproducedin van Dulmen,Hexenwelten(see n. 2),
p. 28.
14 I.Q. van RegterenAltena,Jacquesde Gheyn.ThreeGenerations,The Hague,Boston
and London1983,vol. II, p. 83, Catalogueno. 524.
15 Zika, 'Lespartiesdu corps'(see n. 3), pp. 395-8.
16 As in HansBaldungGrien'sdrawingsof 1514andhiswell-knownpaintingof 1523,'The
WeatherWitches'(see ChristianeAndersson,'HansBaldungGrien:"ZweiWetterhexen"',in
G. Pflug(ed.), Preziosen:Sammlungsstucke und DokumenteselbstandigerKulturinstitute der
Bundesrepublik Deutschland,Bonn 1986,pp. 13-16;LindaHults,'Baldungandthe Witchesof
Freiburg:the Evidenceof Images',Journalof Interdisciplinary History18, 1987,pp. 249-76);
and in the centralridingfigureof Ziarnko'setching.
 Cannibalismand Witchcraft 103

17 In the Ziarnkoetching,a childis presentedto Satanin the formof a goat;other chil-

drenlook afterthe toadswhichare said to be used in the witches'brew.
18 MatthaeusMerianthe Elder, after MichaelHerr, 'Witchcraft',reproducedin Tilman
Falk (ed.), Hollstein'sGermanEngravings,Etchingsand Woodcuts,1400-1700,Roosendaal
1989,vol. XXVI, pp. 156-7.
19 The Germanverses read:'Hie sichtman alte Weiberstahn/Dietod Kinderin Korben
han/Missbrauchen unzeitigGeburt'.The Latinverses (by J.L.Gottfried):'Ast aliae Choreas
agitant,vetulaequecanistrisexpediunt/puerorum artussemesaquemembra.'
20 Reproducedin vanRegterenAltena,Jacquesde Gheyn(see n. 14),vol. III,p. 285,Cata-
logue no. add. 4; A.W.F.M.Meij (ed.), Jacquesde GheynII drawings,1565-1629(Exhibn
CatalogueMuseumBoymans-vanBeuningen),Rotterdam1986,p. 73, Catalogueno. 70.
21 Fora recentdiscussionof the Notgottes,see KristinE.S.Zapalac,'Inhis ImageandLike-
ness'. Political Iconographyand Religious Changein Regensburg,1500-1600, Ithaca and
London 1990;and for the pietd see ChristophGeissmar-Brandi and Eleonora Louis (eds),
Glaube Hoffnung Liebe Tod (Exhibition Catalogue, GraphischeSammlungAlbertina),
Vienna1995,pp. 232-40.
22 Peter Hulme, ColonidtEncounters.Europe and the Native Caribbean,1492-1797,
Londonand New York1986,pp. 83-6. This is also stressedby KarlKaser,'Ahnenund Kan-
nibalen.ZumProblemvon FormenundSymbolikverblassenderkannibalischer Praktikenauf
dem Balkan',in HedwigRockelein(ed.), Kannibalismusund europaischeKultur,Tubingen
1996,pp. 177-206.
23 See, for example,the paintingsof witchscenesby FransFranckenthe Younger;andfor
an execution,his 1607 paintingof a witches'assembly(now held in the Kunsthistorisches
Museum,Vienna)in UrsulaHarting,FransFranckenderJungere(1581-1642):Die Gemalde
mit kritischemOeuvrekatalog(FlamischeMaler im Umkreisder grossen Meister,vol. 2),
Freren1989,pp. 328 (no. 60), 360-1, Catalogueno. 408.
24 MontagueRhodesJames,Marvelsof theEast.A FullReproduction of the ThreeKnown
Copies,Oxford1929,BODL. 614:Plates 14, 21, 38; TiberiusB.V.:Plates 14, 21, 38; Vitellius
A. XV: Plate 20; John Block Friedman,The MonstrousRacesin MedievalArt and Thought,
CambridgeMass.,1981,p. 11, fig.3; Colin,Bild des Indianers(see n. 7), p. 435, fig. 52.
25 Reproducedin ElizabethHallam(ed.), Chroniclesof the Crusades,London1989,p. 85.
Forcannibalismas propagandaandliterarytrope,see especiallyJillTattersall,'Anthropophagi
and Eaters of Raw Flesh in FrenchLiteratureof the CrusadePeriod:Myth,Traditionand
Reality',MediumAevum 57, 1988,pp. 240-53;CharlesBurnetand PatrickGautierDalche,
'Attitudestowardsthe Mongolsin MedievalLiterature:the XXII Kingsof Gog and Magog
fromthe Courtof FrederickII to Jeande Mandeville,Viator22, 1991,pp. 153-67.
26 See the miniaturesof the Masterof Boucicautand Masterof Bedford,in H. Omont
(ed.), Le Livredes Merveilles:reproductiondes 265 miniaturesdu manuscritfranvais2810 de
la BibliothequeNationale,Paris 1907,vol. I, pp. 69, 94, vol. II, pp. 185, 193.Also Friedman,
MonstrousRaces(see n. 24), p. 156,fig.5.
27 StephenGreenblatt,MarvellousPossessions:the Wonderof the New World,Chicago
and Oxford1991,p. 145.
28 For the following see especially CharlesZika, 'FashioningNew Worldsfrom Old
Fathers:Reflectionson Saturn,AmerindiansandWitchesin a Sixteenth-Century Print',in D.
Merwick(ed.), DangerousLiaisons:Essaysin Honourof GregDening(MelbourneUniversity
HistoricalMonographs,19), Parkville1994,pp. (249-81)261-9;Colin,Bild des Indianers(see
n. 7); AstridWendt,Kannibalismus in Brasilien.EineAnalyseeuropaischerReiseberichte und
Amerika-Darstellungen fur die Zeit zwischen1500 und 1654,Frankfurtam Main,Bern, New
Yorkand Paris1989;HughHonour(ed.), TheEuropeanVisionof America,Cleveland1975;
RachelDoggett, MoniqueHulveyand Julie Ainsworth(eds), New Worldof Wonders:Euro-
pean Imagesof the Americas,1492-1700,Seattle and London 1992;WilliamC. Sturtevant,
'FirstVisual Imagesof Native America',in Fredi Chiapelli(ed.), FirstImagesof America,
Berkeley1976.
29 Staden,Brasilien(see n. 8). On Staden,see RheinhardMaackand KarlFouquet(eds),
Hans StadensWahrhaftige Historia,Marburg1964,pp. 211-31;and Donald Forsyth,'Three
Cheersfor HansStaden:the case for Braziliancannibalism',Ethnohistory32, 1985,pp. 17-36.
30 Sievernich,Americade Bry (see n. 8); MichelDuchet (ed.), L'Ameriquede Theodore
de Bry:Unecollectionde voyagesprotestantedu 16esiecle.Quatreetudesd'iconographie, Paris
1987;MichaelAlexander(ed.), Discoveringthe New World:Basedon the worksof Theodore
de Bry, London1976.
104 HistoryWorkshopJournal

31 Thisworkis also the subjectof my article,'FashioningNew Worlds'(see n. 28). Forthe

figureof Saturn,also see Zika, 'Les partiesdu corps'(see n. 3).
32 Fora reproductionof thisworksee RaymondKlibansky,ErwinPanofskyandFritzSaxl,
SaturnandMelancholy:Studiesin theHistoryof NaturalPhilosophy,ReligionandArt,London
1964,p. 383, P1.24;P1.53;IlyaM. Veldman,'De machtvan de planetenover het mensdomin
prentennaarMaartende Vos',Bulletinvanhet Rijksmuseum 31, 1983,pp. 21-53.
33 For these and related images,see the reproductionsand furtherreferencesin Zika,
'FashioningNew Worlds'(see n. 28);Zika, 'Les partiesdu corps'(see n. 3).
34 The broadsheethas been attributedto MatthiasGerung,and is reproducedin R.W.
Scribner,FortheSakeof SimpleFolk.PopularPropagandafor theGermanReformation,Cam-
bridge1981,p. 90,fig.67;WernerHoffmann(ed.), LutherunddieFolgenfUirdieKunst,Munich
1983,p. 71.
35 B. Brenk, 'Teufel', Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie vol. 4, 1972, pp. 295-300;
Enrico Castelli, ll demoniaco nell'arte, Milan 1952; Jeffrey Burton Russell, Lucifer. The Devil
in the MiddleAges, Ithacaand London1984,pp. 208-244,262.
36 ThomasMurner,Die Mullevon Schwyndelszheym und GredtMullerinJarzeit,Strass-
burg 1515, fo. B ivr (at the chapterheading:'Ein rohen narrenfressen');ErhardSchoen,
'Aigentlichenewe zeitungvon dem narrenfresser',in MaxGeisberg,TheGermanSingle-Leaf
Woodcut,1500-1550,ed. WalterStrauss,New York 1974,vol. IV, p. 1,135.Also see Samuel
Sumberg, The Nuremberg Schembart Carnival, New York 1941, p. 172.
37 Hans-UlrichRoller,Der NurnbergerSchembartlaufStudienzum Fest-undMaskenwe-
sen des spaten Mittelalters,Tubingen 1965, pp. 116-21; Sumberg, Nuremberg Schembart (see n.
36), p. 151.In one Schembartbuch manuscriptthe text refersto the figureas a KindterFresser;
in anotherthe Holle is a hell-mouthinto whichdolls are thrown.
38 Sumberg, Nuremberg Schembart (see n. 36), pp. 162-3; Roller, Der Nurnberger Schem-
bartlauf(see n. 37), pp. 128-9.
39 Geisberg and Strauss, The German Single-Leaf Woodcut, 1500-1550 (see n. 36), vol. IV,
p. 1,482.
40 See the two broadsheetsreproducedin ChristianW. Thomsen,Menschenfresser
in der
Kunstund Literatur,in fernen Landern,Mythen,Marchenund Satiren,in Dramen,Liedern,
Epen und Romanen, Vienna 1983, pp. 11-12.
41 Reproducedin Thomsen,Menschenfresser, p. 10;Eric Zafran,'Saturnand the Jews',
Journalof the Warburgand CourtauldInstitutes42, 1979,(pp. 16-27) fig. 8c.
42 Zafran,'Saturnand the Jews',pp. 23, 26-7.
43 AnotherEuropeanfaminescene whichdepictsone womanchoppingup a childwhile
a secondwomancookshumanfleshin the backgroundis foundin a Dutchbroadsheetof 1732.
It depictsthe terribleeventswhichoccurredin the Palatinatec.1635andfeaturesa medallion
portraitof the woman,shownwithknifeandchildandpositionedbetweenthe ElectoralPrince
of Mainz and the Count Palatine. See David Kunzle, The Early Comic Strip: Narrative Strips
and PictureStoriesin the EuropeanBroadsheetfrom c.1450to 1825,Berkeley1973,p. 81, fig.
3-17.
44 Hoffmann,Lutherund die FolgenfiUrdie Kunst(see n. 34), pp. 288-9, fig. 158-61;also
reproducedin Jean-PaulDuviols,L'Ameriqueespagnolevue et revee:les livresde voyagesde
ChristopheColombd Bougainville,Paris1986,p. 201.
45 Thisbroadsheet,entitled'Nie erhorte/abscheuliche/und
unnaturlicheThatten/undmis-
shandlungen/indem FurstenthumbSchlesien/vonetlichen Todtengrabernbegangen/... in
disem 1606 Jar', was publishedby the AugsburgBriefmaler,Georg Kress. See Dorothy
Alexander and Walter Strauss, The German Single-Leaf Woodcut, 1600-1700, New York 1977,
vol. I, p. 342;KarenLambrecht,"'Jagdhundedes Teuels".Die Verfolgungvon Totengrabern
im GefolgefruhneuzeitlicherPestwellen',in AndreasBlauertandGerdSchwerhoff(eds), Mit
den WaffenderJustiz.ZurKriminalitatsgeschichte des Spatmittelalters
undderfruhenNeuzeit,
Frankfurtam Main1993,pp. (137-57) 137-42,147.
46 For the analogy with Dirck Volkertz Coornhert's1555 engraving,'Battlefieldin
America',see Zika, 'Les partiesdu corps'(see n. 3), pp. 416-7.
47 'Ehrschrocklicheund zuvor nie erhorte newe Zeitung/welchermassen im Landtzu
JulichuberdreyhundertWeibspersonen/mitdemTeuffelsichverbunden/inWolffsgestaltsich
verwandlen konden ... auff den 6. tag May im Jar 1591 . . .' See Walter Strauss, The German
Single-Leaf Woodcut, 1550-1600, New York 1975, vol. II, p. 548.
48 See Geisberg and Strauss, The German Single-Leaf Woodcut 1600-1700 (see n. 45),
vol. II, p. 586 (Cranach, c.151-15); Strauss, The German Single-Leaf Woodcut, 1550-1600 (see
 Cannibalism and Witchcraft 105

n. 47), vol. II, p. 701 (LucasMayer,1589);JohannGeilervon Kaisersberg,Die Emeis,Stras-

bourg:JohannesGrienniger1517, fo. xxxxil (Hans Weiditz,c.1516).For werewolvesmore
generally, see Caroline Oates, 'Metamorphosisand Lycanthropyin Franche-Comte,
1521-1643',in MichaelFeher,RamonaNaddaffandNadiaTazi(eds), Fragments for a History
of the HumanBody, New York1989,vol. I, pp. 304-63.
49 My thoughtshere are influencedby MaryDouglas,Purityand Danger:an Analysisof
the Conceptsof Pollutionand Taboo,New York1966.
50 CharlesZika, 'She-man:Visual Representationsof Witchcraftand Sexualityin 16th-
CenturyEurope',in AndrewLynchand PhilippaMaddern(eds), Venusand Mars:Traditions
of Love and Warin Medievaland EarlyModernEurope,Perth 1995,pp. 147-90;Zika, 'Les
partiesdu corps'(see n. 3), pp. 407-12.
51 For other examples,see Hoffmann,Lutherund die Folgenfiir die Kunst(see n. 34),
pp. 278-88.An analogyto Verstegan'saccountin the fieldof confessionalpoliticsis the image
of the 'AnatomiaLutheri'from a Jesuitpamphletof 1567,whichdepictsthe body of Luther
being dismemberedand eaten by his differentProtestantsupporters.See Hoffmann,Luther
und die FolgenfPr die Kunst,p. 156,fig. 30a.
52 For a reproductionof the engravingand detailed analysis,see Zika, 'Les partiesdu
corps',pp. 399-403.
53 LyndalRoper, 'WitchcraftandFantasyin earlymodernGermany',HistoryWorkshop
Journal32, 1991,pp. 19-43;Richardvon Dulmen,Kindsmordin derfruhenNeuzeit,Frankfurt
am Main1991;RonaldPo-chiaHsia, TheMythof RitualMurder:Jewsand Magicin Reforma-
tion Germany,New Havenand London1988,pp. 152-4.
54 Thea Vignau-Wilberg,'Zur Entstehungzweier Emblematavon ChristophMurer',
Anzeigerdes GermanischenNationalmuseums1977, pp. 85-94; Katja Sperling,'Christoph
MurersGlasgemaldefur den Rat und fur Patrizierfamilien der StadtNurnberg',M.A. disser-
tation,Erlangen-Nurnberg 1991.
55 This is ignoredby both Thea Vignau-Wilbergand KatjaSperlingin the workscited
above.
56 Ronald Po-chiaHsia, Trent1475. Storiesof a RitualMurderTrial,New Haven and
London1992;Hsia, Mythof RitualMurder(see n. 53).
57 See the recent exciting contributionsto this theme in Geissmar-Brandiand Louis,
GlaubeHoffnungLiebe Tod(see n. 21), throughout.