Ferdinand Sterzinger (1721-1786)
Nicht doch, oder, Auflösung der kleinen Zweifel über zwey Beriche von einer Hexen; oder Studenten-Geschichte die sich in dem Jahre 1768, den 10., 11., 12., und 13. Junius zu Ingolstadt n Bayern soll zugetragen haben
1768
Sterzinger, a Bavarian priest, gave a talk before the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in 1766 that identified witchcraft as a laughable superstition. While the speech had been approved beforehand by the Bavarian government, it nonetheless set off what historians have referred to as the Bavarian “witchcraft war”, which is also often identified as the last major public debate on witchcraft in early modern Europe. The volume presented here contains a number of tracts written both as criticisms and in praise of Sterzinger’s ideas.
On display is Johann Michael Model, Beantwortete Frage: ob man die Ausfahrt der Hexen zulasses könne? Wider den heutigen Hexenstürmer P. Ferdinand Sterzinger [Answered question: whether it is possible to allow for the acquittal of witches? In answer to Ferdinand Sterzinger]