Rare manuscript reveals dark history of witch hunts

The idea of witches buzzing about on brooms may be a Halloween staple today, but a rare medieval manuscript recently discovered by University of Alberta researchers is a reminder that it has a dark and disturbing past. The manuscript— Invectives Against the Sect of Waldensians —is one of only four copies in the world. It details how to find, hunt, punish or even execute witches in Europe, says history Andrew Gow , who was mining the U of A's Bruce Peel Special Collections Library for old books when he found it. Gow says the mysterious manuscript, written in 1460, was prepared for an eccentric reader. "It was written in the environment of the court of the Dukes of Burgundy, one of the greatest and most powerful, interesting and strangest courts in the Middle Ages." Just how it ended up at the U of A libraries—and why is it missing a valuable portion—are among the questions Gow has been trying to answer. He recently brought the renowned codicologist Erik Kwakkel from Leiden University in the Netherlands to the U of A to work with students who were also trying to discover details on old books that were bound with medieval manuscripts. "It's missing something; someone at some point ripped out the most valuable, the most interesting and the most exciting piece of the whole manuscript, which is the frontispiece," said Gow.