[Sprenger, Jacobus and Henricus Institoris]

Volume I contains the text of the Malleus proper plus Nider’s Formicarium, and volume II a group of texts by other writers: Bernard Basin Opusculum de artibus magicis etc., Molitor De lamiis, the Flagellum daemonum of Girolamo Menghi, Gerson De probatione spirituum, Thomas Murner Liber de pythonico contractu, Felix Hemmerlin (Malleolus) De exorcismis & De credulitate daemonibus adhibenda and Bartholomaeus de Spina De strigibus etc.

The preface to volume I is by the Strassburg publisher Zetzner, and that to volume II by Bassée. In the former Zetzner makes it clear that the work was edited in two volumes (at his suggestion) with marginal notes by Johann Fischart (1548-c.1590). Fischart was a pupil at the Sturm school in Strassburg, and at one time worked as a proof reader for the printer Jobin, who published his translation of Bodin’s Daemonomania (1581). He was an ardent protestant and satirist best known for his translation of Rabelais (Geschichklitterung). His role in this undertaking seems not to have been previously noticed, but Zetzner is quite clear. Bassée's preface is addressed to the prior of the Carmelite monastery in Frankfurt, who would most certainly not have approved of Fischart.

At least some of the works (Sprenger (but not Nider), Basin, Molitor, Gerson and Murner) were first published in 1580 by Bassée. The same firm produced a number of later editions, including one "sumptibus L. Zetzneri" (1588).