print;
broadside
- Museum number
- 1862,0208.45
- Title
- Object: Warhaffte Beschreibung Deß Urtheils, so Anno 1666.den 15.Aprilis...hat gegeben und zugetragen...
- Description
-
Broadside on the execution of an old woman as a witch; with a woodcut devided in three compartments, and letterpress heading and description in two columns. (Augsburg, Elias Wellhöfer: [1666])
- Production date
- 1666
- Dimensions
-
Height: 312 millimetres (printed area)
-
Height: 85 millimetres (woodcut)
-
Width: 249 millimetres (printed area)
-
Width: 212 millimetres (woodcut)
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- On 15 April 1666, the old woman Anna Schwayhoferin was executed as a witch in Augsburg. She had "confessed" under torture to blasphemy, abuse of the Host (communion wafer), and causing the death of a child and harm to another person, and was condemned to be executed and have her body burned. On the way to the place of execution she was to have been further tortured with red-hot pincers, but this part of her sentence was commuted in view of her age and infirmity. There were many broadsides devoted to the punishment of criminals and witches, all intended to frighten their rather bloodthirsty public into conformism.
The publisher, by trade an illuminator, has re-used part of a large wood-block from his account of a similar execution in 1654, suitably altered. The scene on the left originally showed two women before the inquisitors (the second's skirt is still visible), while that in the centre originally showed the torture with pincers not applied in this case (though the head of the instrument is still visible across the victim's upper arm); a woodcut insertion supplies two confessors in place of the torturer. (David Paisey)
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Text and illustration: German illustrated broadsides of four centuries, BM exhibition, 2002
- Acquisition date
- 1862
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1862,0208.45
