Witchcraft in literary texts: the case of the "Malleus Maleficarum"

Abstract

This article will try to deepen in witchcraft as a literary motif and, therefore, in its presence in fictional texts. As the references to witches and black sabbaths in the Spanish literature are just a few in the centuries when the witch hunt reached its peak, this work opens a new line of research which focuses on the treaties and manuals for inquisitors as the raw material from which it is possible to draw a collection of fictional stories on this subject (which always appear, indeed, as examples, cases or real anecdotes). We will take the Malleus Maleficarum as the main source to prove these facts, as it was the work which had the greatest influence across Europe in the formation of the concept of witchcraft. The conclusions reached here affect both the literary consideration of this phenomenon and the nature of