About the Author: Johann Nider

Johann Nider was a German preacher and inquisitor. He was a well-educated man, having received education at the universities of Vienna and Cologne.1 While Nider worked as a Professor at the University of Vienna and as prior of the Dominican convents at both Nuremberg and Bâle, he was also a “zealous witch-finder”.2 The dialogue between the pupil and master that is being analyzed is taken from an edition of one of his works, Formicarius, which was published in 1602. The original work was written between 1431 and 1438.3

johannes nider
This portrait of Johann Nider may be found at the Austrian National Library.4
  1. Jay Williams, Life in the Middle Ages (CUP Archive, 1967), 210.
  2. Ibid.
  3. Ibid.
  4. Porträt Johannes Nider wien. Austrian National Library, Vienna, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Johannes_Nider.jpg.