15th Century Book on Fighting Witchcraft Found

The University of Alberta proud owner of rare book on fighting witchcraft.

From a story in the Toronto Star...

The book, Invectives Against the Sect of Waldensians, is a how-to guide to expunge all evil and vanquish the dark forces of witchcraft. He said the 150-page manuscript is thought to have been written around 1465 by a monk in France’s Burgundy region, possibly for Edward IV of England. 

“The real evil is actually in this book, and it’s human. It’s not magical,” he said. “It’s a view of one’s fellow human beings as agents of the devil that is truly evil.” 

Gow came across the book in 2005 while scouring the university’s Bruce Peel Special Collections Library for teaching material. It is exceedingly rare — only four copies are known to exist.