Mastication in Italian

Initially written in Latin, then translated into German and expanded by the author, and some 250 years later translated into French, and published in a modern German edition, Michael Ranft's De masticatione mortuorum in tumulis was published in Italian earlier this year by LibriPerduti as Diceria del Vampiro. It is accompanied by texts by Gabriele Ferrero and Dario Spada.

On shrouds, vampires and the dance of the dead

This prologue to the well-known Hammer vampire movie The Vampire Lovers from 1969 based on Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's famous short story Carmilla, has its roots in vampire or revenant lore.

In Le Fanu's story it is told by a woodman in chapter 13:

"How came the village to be deserted?" asked the General.

"It was troubled by revenants, sir; several were tracked to their graves, there detected by the usual tests, and extinguished in the usual way, by decapitation, by the stake, and by burning; but not until many of the villagers were killed.

"But after all these proceedings according to law," he continued - "so many graves opened, and so many vampires deprived of their horrible animation - the village was not relieved. But a Moravian nobleman, who happened to be travelling this way, heard how matters were, and being skilled - as many people are in his country - in such affairs, he offered to deliver the village from its tormentor. He did so thus: There being a bright moon that night, he ascended, shortly after sunset, the towers of the chapel here, from whence he could distinctly see the churchyard beneath him; you can see it from that window. From this point he watched until he saw the vampire come out of his grave, and place near it the linen clothes in which he had been folded, and then glide away towards the village to plague its inhabitants.

"The stranger, having seen all this, came down from the steeple, took the linen wrappings of the vampire, and carried them up to the top of the tower, which he again mounted. When the vampire returned from his prowlings and missed his clothes, he cried furiously to the Moravian, whom he saw at the summit of the tower, and who, in reply, beckoned him to ascend and take them. Whereupon the vampire, accepting his invitation, began to climb the steeple, and so soon as the had reached the battlements, the Moravian, with a stroke of his sword, clove his skull in twain, hurling him down to the churchyard, whither, descending by the winding stairs, the stranger followed and cut his head off, and next day delivered it and the body to the villagers, who duly impaled and burnt them."

The inspiration no doubt is Dom Calmet, who in chapter 51 of the second part of his 1751 Traité writes:

'Un prêtre de bon esprit m'a raconté il y a peu de temps que voyageant dans la Moravie, il fut invité par M. Jeanin, chanoine de la cathédrale d'Olmuz, de l'accompagner à leur village nommé Liebava, où il était nommé commissaire par le consistoire de l'évêché, pour informer sur le fait d'un certain fameux vampire, qui avait causé beaucoup de désordre dans ce village de Liebava, quelques années auparavant.

L'on procéda, l'on ouît des témoins; on observa les règles ordinaires de droit. Les témoins déposèrent qu'un certain habitant notable du lieu de Liebava avait souvent inquiété les vivants dudit lieu pendant la nuit, qu'il était sorti du cimetière et avait paru dans plusieurs maisons, il y avait environ trois ou quatre ans; que ses visites importunes étaient cessées parce qu'un étranger hongrois passant par le village dans le temps de ces bruits, s'était vanté de les faire passer et de faire disparaître le vampire. Pour satisfaire à sa promesse, il monta sur le clocher de l*église et observa le moment auquel le vampire sortait de son tombeau, laissant auprès de sa fosse les linges dans lesquels il était enseveli, puis allait par le village, inquiéter les habitants.

Le Hongrois l'ayant vu sortir de sa fosse, descend promptement du clocher, enlève les linges du vampire et les emporte avec lui sur la tour. Le vampire étant revenu de faire ses tours et ne trouvant plus ses habits, crie beaucoup contre le Hongrois, qui lui fait signe du haut de la tour, s'il veut revoir ses habits, qu'il vienne les cherchere. Le vampire se met en devoir de monter au clocher, mais le Hongrois le renverse de l'échelle et lui coupe la tête avec une bêche. Telle fut la fin de cette tragédie.

Celui qui m'a raconté cette histoire n'a rien vu; ni lui ni ce seigneur qui était envoyé pour commissaire. Ils ouïrent seulement le rapport des paysans du lieu, gens fort ignorants, fort supersticieux, fort crédules et infiniment prévenus sur le fait du vampirisme'

Or in the English translation of Henry Christmas:

'A sensible priest related to me, a little while ago, that, travelling in Moravia, he was invited by M. Jeanin, a canon of the cathedral at Olmutz, to accompany him to their village, called Liebava, where he had been appointed comissioner by the consistory of the bishopric, to take information concerning the fact of a certain famous vampire, which had caused much confusion in this village of Liebava some years before. The case proceeded. They heard the witnesses, they observed the usual forms of the law. The witnesses deposed that a certain notable inhabitant of Liebava had often disturbed the living in their beds at night, that he had come out of the cemetery, and had appeared in several houses three or four years ago; that his troublesome visits had ceased because a Hungarian stranger, passing through the village at the time of his reports, had boasted that he could put an end to them, and make the vampire disappear. To perform his promise, he mounted on the church steeple, and observed the moment when the vampire came out of his grave, leaving near it the linen clothes in which he had been enveloped, and then went to disturb the inhabitants of the village. The Hungarian, having seen him come out of his grave, went down quickly from the steeple, took up the linen envelopes of the vampire, and carried them with him up the tower. The vampire having returned from his prowlings, cried loudly against the Hungarian, who made him a sign from the top of the tower that if he wished to have his clothes again he must fetch them; the vampire began to ascend the steeple, but the Hungarian threw him down backwards from the ladder, and cut his head off with a spade. Such was the end of this tragedy. The person who related this story to me saw nothing, neither did the noble who had been sent as commissioner; they only heard the report of the peasants of the place, people extremely ignorant, superstitious and credulous, and most exceedingly prejudiced on the subject of vampirism.'

However, going back to one of the most popular German (and consequently Protestant) works on apparitions of the 17th century, Erasmus Francisci Der Höllische Proteus, first published in 1690, one can find this story in his chapter on the masticating dead, Der schmätzende Todte:

'Es gedenckt auch Zeilerus, in seinen Trauer-Geschichten: Er habe / zu Eywanschitz in Mähren / im Jahr 1617 und 18 / zu unterschieclichen Malen / von glaubwürdigen Bürgern des Orts / erzehlen hören daß daselbst / vor etlichen Jahren / (nemligch von selbiger Zeit zuruckzurechenen) ein / dem Ansehn nach ehrlicher / Bürger / auf dem Kirchhofe selbiger Stadt beerdigt worden; aber stets / bey der Nacht / aufgestanden sey / und Leute umgebracht habe. Dieser ließ allezeit seinen Sterb-Kittel / bey dem Grabe / ligen : und wann er sich wiederum niderlegte; zoch er denselben wieder an. Es wurden aber einsmals die Wächter / auf dem Kirch-Thurn / gewahr / als er vom Grabe wegging; eilten derhalben hinab / und trugen ihm den Sterb-Kittel hinweg. Da er nun / wieder zum Grabe kommend / seinen Kittel nich antraff; rief er ihnen zu / sie sollten ihm den Kittel wiedergeben / oder er wollte ihnen Allen die Hälse brechen. Welches sie auch / in grossem Schrecken / gethan.

Aber nochmals musste der Hencker ihn ausgraben / und zu Stücken zerhauen. Worauf man witer nichts gespúhrt. Der Scharffrichter zoch ihm einen langen grossen Schleyer / aus dem Maul / hervor / welchen er seinen Weibe vom Kopff hinweg gefressen hatte. Diesen zeigte der Nachrichter dem umherstehenden Volck / und rieff: Schauet! wie der Schelm so geizig gewesen! Nachdem er aus dem Grabe genommen war / sagte er: Sie hetten es jetzo wol recht getroffen; sonst / weil sein Weib auch gestorben / und zu ihm gelegt wäre / wollten sie Beyde die halbe Stadt umgebracht haben.'

Zeilerus according to Francisci is 'Zeiler. im I Theil der Trauer-Geschichte p.25.seqq.', i.e. Les Histoire Tragiques de Nostre Temps: Das ist Newe/Warhafftige/trawrig/kläglich und wunderliche Geschichten/die wegen Zauberey/Diebstal und Rauberey/ Ehrgeitz / und anderer seltzamen und denckwürdigen Zufälle from 1624, a translation by Martin Zeiller of Francois de Rosset's popular Les Histoires tragiques de notre temps from 1615. I have looked at a digital scan of Rosset's work, and could not find the story. I may have overlooked it, but I think that the story may have been included by Zeiller in his edition. Unfortunately, I have not (yet) had Zeiller's translation at hand. For more on editions of Rosset's book, check here. The story, however, can also be found in Valvasor's famous book and elsewhere.


That Calmet's Liebava story is a variation on Zeiller's has been observed by others, cf. also Rob Brautigam's Shroudeater , and I think the earliest remark on it is made by Stefan Hock in 1900 who also referred to Ralston's Russian Folktales, and wrote (in a footnote):

'Eine ganz ähnliche Sage erzählt Calmet (II: 255 f.) aus Liebava in Mähren nach mündlichen Berichten von Zeugen, wo aber der Ungar, der die Rolle des Wächters spielt, das Gespenst hinunterstürzt und so das Dorf rettet. Diese Form steht Goethes Ballade viel näher.' (p. 32)

As noted by Hock, this tale was an inspiration for Goethe's Totentanz from 1815 which can be found here in the original and in an English translation. Speaking of the dance of the dead, there are some interesting web sites on the subject: The web site of the Europäische Totentanz-Vereinigung, and a fellow Dane's exploration of the Danish term: 'to look like Death from Lübeck'.

So you can follow this thread (of shroud, so to speak) back from a Hammer movie to earlier revenant concepts and the dance of the dead. And, appropriately, coming back to our 21st century, here is a recent version of Goethe's poem (re)animated by Lego bricks!

De Masticatione Mortuorum for sale!

You can now get hold of a very special copy of a very special and rare book - but it will cost you $21.375!

Zubal Books is selling a copy of Philipp Rohr's 1679 De Masticatione Mortuorum, and you should check it out on their web site to see the images of the book. You can also find it on Abebooks:

'first edition; leaves slightly shorter than 20 cm., [24] unnumbered pages beginning with title, A1; later paper covered boards darkened and rubbed at leather spine and tips, general age toning but entirely readable and not at all fragile, C3 has five block letters penciled in margins, overall a very good copy for this very infrequently seen item; Montague Summers' copy with his book plate by Eric Gill, "Alphoinvs Montagve Svmmers Liber svvs ." with a wood engraving featuring Saint Jerome and lion; usually translated as ?On the Chewing Dead? Rohr's work explores the strange and terrible legends of the dead reanimated through demonic possession devouring their own shrouds and moving on to gnaw on nearby corpses in a sort of unholy manduction, this of course has a relevance to the vampire mythos that certainly would have been appreciated by Summers; rare '

In search of Rohr

I have been asked for the whereabouts of a copy of Philipp Rohr's famous Dissertatio historico-philosophica de Masticatione Mortuorum from 1679. I actually do not have the original text, but I do know that a copy of the original book exists at the University Library in Leipzig. However, someone out there may know of a digital edition available online? If so, do send me a link to it and I will post it here.

The Vampire Bites Back?

Leon has pointed to some news in archaeology that is supposed to relate to a belief in vampires.

The original work was presented by Emilio Nuzzolese and Matteo Borrini at the 61st Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in February as a poster in the field of odontology entitled The Vampire Bites Back in Odontology and Anthropology: Case Report of Skeletal Remains on Nuovo Lazzaretto Island, Venice.

The find is the skeleton of a female buried in a mass grave in Venice in 1576 with a brick forced into her mouth, and the theory seems to be that this must have been done to avoid her from e.g. eating her shroud enabling her to harm the living. If that should indeed be the case, it is a belief that is related to various sorts of revenants including vampires, but of course, vampires as they came to be known in the 18th century were not known in Venice in the late 16th century.

I find it hard to be really sure what to think of it from just the news stories available on the internet, so hopefully more exact information will be available.

Ranft - then and now

As mentioned in an earlier post, I have a couple of times been contacted by descendants of some of the people who have played a role in the history of magia posthuma and vampires. Most notably, I was recently contacted by Richard Ranft who informed me that Michael Ranft was his 5th great-grandfather. Richard Ranft lives in England and informs me that 'one of Michael Ranft's great-great grandsons, Michael Walter George Ranft (1854-1893) was born in Leipzig but later on emigrated from Geneva to London, which is why I am English.'

He has also directed me to a genealogical web site, RootsWeb, where you can follow the Ranft family from the 1500's. If you take a look at the entry on Michael Ranft, you will probably be amazed to learn that not only was he a very productive author, he was also the father of no less than twelve (12) children! Apparently, his first wife, Johanne Sophie Vogt, died at the age of 26, so Ranft married Konstantia Maria Birkholz. (Actually, according to a contemporary biography, Johanne Sophie gave birth to five children, but one of them was still born. Two of Ranft's other children died very young, and another died in his youth).

Born on December 9th 1700 in Güldengossa, Michael Ranft was the son of the local pastor also named Michael Ranft (1670-1743). Obviously an intelligent child, Michael Ranft went to school at Chemnitz from 1712-19 before going to Leipzig where he became a Baccalareus in 1723 and a Magister in 1724. In 1725 he was inspired by the Kisiljevo (Peter Plogojowitz) vampire case to write his dissertation on the mastication of the dead.

Joining his father who had in the meantime become a pastor in Droysig for a short while in 1726, Ranft became a deacon in Nebra the following year. Here he was an industrious writer of biographies and genealogical works. During this period he wrote an expanded edition of his work on the mastication of the dead, which no one seemed to take serious until the advent of the 1732 Medvedja vampire case. The ensuing vampire debate prompted Ranft to write a third edition in 1734, translating the former editions to German, and commenting on the vast vampire literature of 1732-3.

In 1739 Ranft returned to Droysig to aid his ageing father, whom he followed in office upon the father's death in 1743. In 1749 he became pastor in Groß Stechau where he died in 1774.

Obviously, Ranft was an extremely productive author, and one biographer mentions 38 books in his Ranft bibliography. A couple of his books are available online like this one, but most of them will today mostly be of interest to specialists. Somehow, he got obsessed with the matter of the masticating dead, revenants and vampires, writing three editions of his dissertation on the subject, and even later on referred to it in his writings. Certainly, it is this obsession that has made his name known today, although for many years his books on the subject were only read by those who could find a copy at a library. Recent editions in German and French, and now an online edition, have, however, made his thoughts on the subject more accessible to a modern audience.

Sturm und Völker 40th Anniversary

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the first edition of Dieter Sturm and Klaus Völker's classic anthology, Von denen Vampiren oder Menschensaugern: Dichtungen und Dokumenten, originally published by Carl Hanser Verlag. It has been reprinted and published in new editions several times, including paperbacks that only contain certain parts of the original book, making it perhaps the most bestselling anthology of vampire fact and fiction!

Certainly, Sturm and Völker's book must have been a very important book for many who have become fascinated by this curious subject. This was the book that first introduced me to the text of Flückinger's Visum et Repertum, as well as to e.g. Luther talking about the mastication of the dead in his Tischreden. I can recall struggling with reading and understanding the old German texts back in my youth, and studying the extensive bibliography. This was indeed a ground breaking and inspirational work, and the continued reprinting is a testament to the quality and scope of the work. In the light of what has been printed later on, e.g. Hamberger's anthology, Von denen Vampiren is no longer up to date, but it is still a good starting point for anyone with an interest in vampires who can read German.

Both Klaus Völker and Dieter Sturm are around 70 now and have no doubt been active in various areas during the past 40 years, but for some of us 'Sturm und Völker' is simply another way of referring to their 1968 anthology Von denen Vampiren oder Menschensaugern!

Dracula's Vettern

In an earlier post I stated my doubts concerning the uniqueness of the vampire. Peter Kremer’s book Draculas Vettern: Deutschlands vergessene Vampire (Dracula’s cousins: The forgotten vampires of Germany; PeKaDe-Verlag, 2006, 14.99 €) is very much concerned with this question: Is the vampire a Slavic concept which influenced the folklore of other parts of Europe, or is the Slavic vampire only one manifestation of the concept of a revenant or living corpse that has been known throughout Europe?

Peter Kremer convincingly documents that the latter is the correct answer, and that folkloric entities known in e.g. Western parts of Germany share all the basic characteristics of the Slavic vampire. This may surprise those who have not been able to study the material available on revenants of various sorts throughout Europe, but Kremer certainly has done his home work and is familiar with not only the usual literature on vampires, but also the literature on other types of revenants, as well as folklore in general, witchcraft cases, werewolves, anthropology and more.

His reading of various authors and sources is both critical and analytical. He appropriately critisises Montage Summers and the great number of authors and ‘vampirologists’ whose works are more or less derivative of Summers, but he also presents a very interesting analysis of the background of German folklore research, which sheds light on its leanings towards finding or constructing a Germanic origin and in its extreme: national socialist ideological ideas. To some scholars the belief in revenants and vampires was so primitive that it had to be seen as non-Germanic, and consequently they had reason to insist on the South East European Slavic roots of the belief.

Kremer expertly reviews the literature and details the various German kinds of revenants, including the masticating dead, and explains the ideas behind these beliefs. He even goes back into prehistory to explore the origins of the fear of the dead and the apotropaic means to defend oneself against the harm of revenants.

He shows how many popular myths stem from fiction and have very little to do with the original folkloric vampires and revenants, and administers what ought to be the final rites to various ‘scientific’ explanations of vampires (porphyria and rabies to name the most popular), showing that they are more based in fiction than in fact.

He is even able to propose hypotheses on how the various revenants can be seen as various evolutionary stages of revenant beliefs, incorporating the role of the Christian churches in the evolution of the corporeal revenant into the 'ethereal' spectre of later ghost stories.

There are 733 footnotes in this 205 page book, and they are a very rich source of information, both concerning the source material and the richness and care of Kremer’s research. Many hours of further reading and consideration can be based on the footnotes alone.

The title’s reference to Dracula seems a bit too popular, considering that this book will probably not appeal to the casual reader. He or she may actually find that their own concepts of vampirism will shatter upon realising that there is nothing desirable about becoming a vampire, no “eternal life” in the company of other vampires, only the state of a living corpse that brings harm to its kith and kin.

Peter Kremer’s Draculas Vettern is a miracle of a contribution to the field and should be read and studied by anyone seriously interested in understanding the origin and nature of vampires and Magia posthuma.

PeKaDe-Verlag can be contacted at pekade3@aol.com.

Internet resources II: Zedler's Universal-Lexicon

To finally continue pointing out interesting internet resources on Magia Posthuma and related subjects (here is my first post on the subject), I would like to mention the online edition of Johann Heinrich Zedler's famous Grosses vollständiges Universal-Lexicon which was published in 64 volumes in Leipzig between 1732 and 1750. The encyclopedia gives an interesting insight into many things that have a bearing on our subject of Magia Posthuma, vampires and other revenants. In fact, there is no entry on Magia posthuma, but there are several other kinds of Magia listed and explained: Magia Adamica, Magia artificialis, Magia dæmonica, Magia diabolica, Magia directa etc. Evidently this makes it possible to get some understanding of what was understand by Magia.


We can also read about the geography of Hungary (Ungarn), where the (changing) borders are listed along with the a list of areas that were originally ('in the days of old') part of Hungary: 'Siebenbürgen, Wallachey, Bulgarien, Thracien und Romanien, Servien, Bosnien, Dalmatien, Croatien und Sclavonien' (Transylvania, Wallachia, Bulgaria, Thracia, Romania, Serbia, Bosnia, Dalmatia, Croatia and Slavonia). In this 'old' sense of the name Hungary, the Serbian vampire cases can be attributed to Hungary, whereas it has often been pointed out that some of the vampires referred to as 'Hungarian' were not located in contemporary or modern Hungary.

And, of course, there are the long entries on vampires (Vampyren) and the mastication of the dead (Schmatzen der Toden), which according to the Zedler are closely related, although of Greek origin. Vampires are defined as ‘Todte menschliche Cörper, welche aus den Gräbern hervor spazieren, den Lebendigen das Blut aussaugen, und sie dadurch umbringen sollen.’ (Dead human bodies, which walk out of the graves and suck the blood of the living, thereby killing them). Both vampire cases from Serbia (Kisiljevo 1725 and Medvedja 1731-2) are described in detail, and various aspects of Greek Orthodox faith, Valvasor's mention of vampires/revenants etc. are related and discussed. There is even a rather detailed list of many of the 18th century works on vampires, so it is really a rather nice review that sums up a lot of what one might say about vampires in Leipzig some 10-15 years after the great vampire debate of 1732.

Furthermore, one can read a detailed bibliography of Michael Ranft (here called Ranfft), and there is the short entry on von Schertz which was shown in a previous post. In short, this is a wonderful source of information for anyone interested in the knowledge of 18th century.

Connoisseuers of the gothic will probably find it intriguing that the editor of the two first volumes of the Universal-Lexicon was Jacob August Franckenstein (1689-1733), and may consequently be interested in reading the entry about the ancient family Franckenstein or Frankenstein in volume 9.

On a more modern note, Jutta Nowosadtko who was mentioned in my previous post, has been involved in a project researching and writing about the Zedler lexicon, Zedleriana.