ABSTRACT
The devil’s mark, impressed upon a witch’s skin by Satan himself as a sign of ownership and fidelity, came to light during the witch trials that raged throughout Europe from the late fifteenth through seventeenth centuries. Cast as a perverse imitation of the divine mark placed on Christians in baptism, the devil’s mark earned judicial value as material proof of its bearer’s guilty relationship with the devil. This chapter investigates the models that spurred the invention and theorization of this physical mark, recasting it as part of a wider culture of marking and a response to modern jurisprudence that placed increasing value on empirical authentication.
