About the author
Christopher S. Mackay is a classicist and historian whose scholarship centers on the witch trials and inquisitorial texts of late medieval and early modern Europe. His best-known work is The Hammer of Witches (Cambridge University Press, 2009), a complete English translation and study of the Malleus Maleficarum, the 1486 treatise that shaped centuries of witchcraft prosecution across Europe. He followed it with An Unusual Inquisition and its companion source volume, Est Insolitum Inquirere Taliter (Brill, 2021), which present the original Latin and German documents from Heinrich Kramer's witch hunts in Ravensburg and Innsbruck. Mackay's approach is philological and documentary: he works from primary sources rather than secondary summaries, giving readers access to the legal and religious reasoning behind historical witch persecution. His books serve scholars, students and general readers researching the history of witchcraft trials rather than practitioners of modern witchcraft.
📖 Where to start with Christopher S MacKay
💬 What our editors say about Christopher S MacKay's books
“MacKay’s definitive edition is a vital contribution to the study of European witchcraft persecution, offering the only complete and accurate English translation of this influential yet horrifying text. The inclusion of scholarly…”
Esoterica Books editorial team, Occult literature desk · on The Hammer of Witches
“This academic text is a dense, specialized resource intended for historians and theologians rather than casual readers of occultism. It rigorously examines the foundational documents of Heinrich Institoris without embellishment…”
Esoterica Books editorial team, Occult literature desk · on Est Insolitum Inquirere Taliter: Latin and German Documents from Heinricus Institoris's Witch Hunts in Ravensburg and Innsbruck - Ingram Academic S MacKay, Christopher
