ABSTRACT
The anti-witchcraft treatise Errores Gazariorum belongs to an ensemble of several remarkably early demonological texts going back as far as the 1430s, which is half a century prior to the publication of the Malleus Maleficaru. Ostorero has moreover formulated the hypothesis that the author of the Errores may have been the Franciscan inquisitor Ponce Feugeyron who had indeed been active in the Val d’Aoste. The most likely vector for the dissemination of the Errores Gazariorum seems at first sight George of Saluzzo. The Palatine version of the Errores offers significant similarities with the Basel copy. The Errores Gazariorum provides a background for Matthias’ narrative about witchcraft, even though he distinguishes the Devil’s minions denounced in the treatise from the local sorceresses to be found around Heidelberg. The structure of the Errores Gazariorum is also itemized, but it is an extended narrative rather than a catalogue.
