Joseph Hansen (26 April 1863 – 29 June 1943) was an influential German historian of witchcraft persecutions, and an archivist in the city of Cologne, where at the age of 80 he was killed, along with his wife, by the bombs of World War II.
Life, education and publications
Joseph Leonhard Hansen was born in 1863 in Aachen and studied at the Universities of Bonn, Berlin, and Münster, earning a doctorate in 1883. From 1891 until his retirement in 1927, he was director of the Historical Archive of the City of Cologne. From 1893 to 1927 he was also chairman of the Society for Rhenish History.
Hansen has been referred to as liberal and "freethinking."HR Trevor-Roper "Religion, The Reformation, and Social Change" (1967) p 276 Hansen was raised Catholic in Aachen and resided in historically Catholic Cologne, with its famous Cologne Cathedral, nonetheless some have referred to him as "anti-clerical."Joseph Hansen (Hrsg.): Quellen zur Geschichte des Rheinlandes im Zeitalter der Französischen Revolution 1780–1801. Rezension in Sehepunkte 6, 2006, Nr. 2.
In 1900, Hansen published Zauberwahn, Inquisition und Hexenprozess im Mittelalter und die Entstehung der grossen Hexenverfolgung (Magical Illusion, Inquisition, and Witch Trials in the Middle Ages, and the Formation of the Larger Persecution of Witches) and the following year a companion volume of background materials was published (Quellen = Sources), Quellen und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des Hexenwahns und der Hexenverfolgung im Mittelalter: Mit einer Untersuchung der Geschichte des Wortes Hexe (1901).
In 1905, Hansen published a German translation of Henry Charles Lea's three-volume History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages.Henry Charles Lea, Geschichte der Inquisition im Mittelalter: in 3 Bänden Rev. und hrsg. von Joseph Hansen (1905)
In 1921, Hansen was elected a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences.Holger Krahnke: Die Mitglieder der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen 1751–2001 (= Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Philologisch-Historische Klasse. Folge 3, Bd. 246 = Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, Mathematisch-Physikalische Klasse. Folge 3, Bd. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, , S. 102. In 1925, he was accepted as a corresponding member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences.Mitglieder der Vorgängerakademien. Joseph Hansen. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, retrieved 1 April 2015.
In 1943, age 80 Hansen and his wife Johanna (1872–1943) were killed in a bombing raid on Cologne.
Influence on Witchcraft Studies Wolfgang Behringer writes that Hansen "unquestionably delivered the consummate synthesis of previous witchcraft studies."Wolfgang Behringer in "Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe" ed. Jonathan Barry, Marianne Hester, and Gareth Roberts (1996) p 66
Two historians of witchcraft who were contemporaries of Hansen—GL Burr and GL Kittredge—both acknowledged the importance of Hansen. GL Burr writing in 1911 refers to Hansen as "the most eminent German scholar who has... given the world the most careful book on the rise of conception..."GL Burr, New England's Place in Witchcraft (1911) p 191 English professor GL Kittredge writing in 1907 was arguably forwarding an anti-thetical view to that of Hansen, yet quoted him at length in untranslated German.GL Kittredge, Notes on Witchcraft (1907) fn 2
Writing in 1965, Carlo Ginzburg refers to the "fundamental investigations of J. Hansen, more precisely, have demonstrated how the image of diabolical witchcraft, with all its appendages... was developed between the mid-thirteenth and mid-fifteenth centuries largely through the efforts of theologians and inquisitors... All this... has been documented exhaustively... Thus the goal of the present research is to document and build upon the approach to the question originally developed by Hansen."Carlo Ginzburg, "The Night Battles" (1966) transl. John & Anne Tedeschi (1983) p. xviii
In a lengthy 1967 essay on the European witch trials, Hugh Trevor-Roper frequently cites Hansen's "important" work. Historian HC Erik Midelfort refers to Hansen as "the great scholar" in his first work on witchcraft in Germany.HC Erik Midelfort, "Witchhunting in Southwestern Germany 1562–1684 (1972) p7 Keith Thomas does not cite or refer to J. Hansen in his work on the subject of witchcraft "Religion and the Decline of Magic" though the title seems similar, albeit inverted, to Hansen's work from 1900.Keith Thomas "Religion and the Decline of Magic" (1971) Writing a few years after K. Thomas, Richard Kieckhefer acknowledges "no small influence" from K. Thomas while relying heavily on the work of J. Hansen including over a hundred citations in the "Calendar of Witch Trials."Richard Kieckhefer, "European Witch Trials" (1976) p.106-118, ix, Kieckhefer also joins Norman Cohn (1975) in expressing strong reservations toward one of Hansen's sources (Baron Lamothe-Langon see below).Kieckhefer,"Europe's Witch Trials" p. ix, 17
Historians Alan Charles Kors and Edward Peters refer to Hansen as "the great archivist of Cologne" and consider his two works the most important scholarship from the turn of the century."Witchcraft in Europe, 400–1700: A Documentary History" ed. Alan Charles Kors & Edward Peters (2000) p. 25
Despite their influence, Hansen's works were not translated into English during the 20th century.
In 2011, a work that tracked and translated into English a selection of the sources used by Hansen in Quellen was published by P. G. Maxwell-Stuart.
Questions Regarding A Source: Lamothe-Langon
In his work on witchcraft, Hansen relied on a vast number of sources and typically included lengthy quotations. These quotes are most often in the original ecclesiastical Latin, the lingua franca of Europe since the time of Jerome. In Zauberwahn these quotes are often placed within the footnotes, and they are featured prominently in the companion work Quellen ("sources"). With regard to one source, Baron Lamothe-Langon, Hansen writes that he consulted with Professor Ch. Molinier "the best expert on the inquisition in the south of France" who confirmed that archives used by Lamothe-Langon can no longer be found (nicht mehr aufzufinden sind). Under these circumstances (Unter diesen Umständen mussen) Hansen laments that he can therefore only provide the full extracts in French, as Hansen seems to believe that, before they were lost, the original Latin documents written by the inquisitors were roughly translated into French by Lamothe-Langon as he compiled a three volume work on the inquisition.Hansen (1901) p. 449-450
Writing in 1972, JB Russell follows Hansen in lamenting the missing Latin originals, and that "we must rely upon a summary translation, and though Lamothe-Langon was a careful scholar, we have no way of knowing what was the word he translated as 'sabbat'." The Latin word "sabbatum" occurs frequently in Jerome's Latin vulgate and would have been familiar to all within the medieval Church. Twelfth century inquisitors who were operating in Toulouse France sometimes referred to Waldensiens as Inzabbbatos.Phillipus van Limborch, History of the Inquisition, p 88 1692 Latin edition Use of the word "sabbatum" as a shorthand to represent a gathering of more than one witch seems most traceable to Francophone writers such as Pierre de Lancre (1612). Lamothe-Langon, also writing in French, may have helped spread the use of the word as shorthand, and Hansen uses it frequently writing in German. But most fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth century writers who joined in the witchcraft debate seem to rarely, if ever, use the Latin "sabbatum" or vernacular derivatives thereof.Jeffrey Burton Russell, Witchcraft in the Middle Ages (1972) p.328 n.26
Writing in 1976, R Kieckhefer cites Russell's work and seems to have become intrigued by his comment regarding the word 'sabbat' but he departs from Russell's view of Lamothe-Langon as a reliable source: "What historians have failed to recognize, however, is that there is serious reason to believe that Lamothe-Langon's texts are forgeries." Kieckhefer bases this on "certain inaccuracies and anachronisms... In particular, Lamothe-Langon uses the word 'Sabbath' in rendering documents for fourteenth-century diabolical assemblies, though this word did not begin to displace the term 'synagogue' of 'synagogue of Satan' until well into the fifteenth century." Kieckhefer cites Russell (as quoted above) but does not provide other sources to support his claims regarding "Sabbath" or "synagogue" or "synagogue of Satan" or whether he means in Latin or a vernacular language. In a 2002 reprint of the same passage from the 1976 work by Kieckhefer, the citation of Russell is removed and replaced with a broad statement: "The Lamothe-Langon texts are now generally regarded as fakes."The Witchcraft Reader, ed. Darren Oldridge (2002) p. 29, 35 n.11 Kieckhefer points out that Norman Cohn shares his opinion (see below), and is careful to note their conclusions were reached independently. A citation that helps explain the serendipity is not included in the 2002 reprint but appeared in 1976: "Cohn and I both based our discoveries in large part on the biographical data in [Richard] Switzer's book of 1962."Kieckhefer (1976) p. 17, 157
Norman Cohn's Wider Criticism
Writing in 1975, Norman Cohn seems to go further than Kieckhefer. For Cohn, questions about the unreliability of Lamothe-Langon, originally based on a biography, seem to have moved from an intriguing and speculative theory into established fact, and Cohn broadens the issue from pertaining to a handful of documents into what he deems a "spectacular historical hoax."Cohn (1975) p 187 Under the heading "How the Great Witch-Hunt Did Not Start," Cohn lists a number of trials from 1275 to 1360, many of which are included in the work of Hansen (and Soldan), and Cohn claims they are all "false from start to finish. None of these things happened."Cohn (1975)p. 181 However, a couple pages later, Cohn concedes that there was a "sole contemporary mention" of a witch trial around 1275" but this trial was for "simple sorcery." (Cohn doesn't provide the Latin term for "simple sorcery.")
Further on, Cohn again qualifies his initial statement and concedes yet another trial from the list did happen, "In 1329, the inquisitor of Carcassonne did sentence a monk to life imprisonment for practicing love magic..."Cohn (1975) p.186 Cohn doesn't provide his source for this "love magic" trial but it can be found in Quellen where Hansen cites the work of HC Lea and Lea includes the entire 1329 sentence reprinted in the original Latin.HC Lea, A History of the Inquisition, Vol III (1922) p. 455,657 The 1329 sentence refers to...multas et diversas daemonum conjurationes et invocationes... and frequently uses the same Latin synonym for witch – sortilegia – found on the title page of Nicolas Rémy's work from 1595 where it is claimed that 900 persons were executed for sortilegii crimen. A Francophone writer and contemporary of Remy, Lambert Daneau, considers "sortilegus" to have been shortened to become the French "sorcier"Lambert Daneau, De Veneficis Quos Olim Sortilegos (1575) p. 14 and indeed sorciers was the term used in the title of another contemporary Jean Bodin in a witch-phobic work written in French in 1580.Bodin, De la Demonomanie des Sorciers (1598 edition)