Why Early Modern Mass Incarceration Matters: The Bamberg Malefizhaus, 1627–31 Abstract. In 1627, at the height of the Bamberg witch-hunt (1595–1631), the prince-bishopric erected the Malefizhaus (“witchcraft-house”), the first cellular pr
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Purchase Alerts About About Journal of Social History Editorial Board Advertising and Corporate Services Journals Career Network Self-Archiving Policy Dispatch Dates Close Navbar Search Filter Journal of Social HistoryThis issue Social and Cultural HistoryBooksJournalsOxford Academic Enter search term Search Advanced Search Search Menu Article Navigation Close mobile search navigation Article Navigation Volume 56 Issue 4 Summer 2023 Next > Article Navigation Article Navigation Journal Article Why Early Modern Mass Incarceration Matters: The Bamberg Malefizhaus, 1627–31 Get access Spencer J Weinreich Spencer J Weinreich Address correspondence to Spencer J. Weinreich, 78 Mount Auburn St., Cambridge, MA 02138. Email: [email protected] . https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0521-306X Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Social History, Volume 56, Issue 4, Summer 2023, Pages 719–752, https://doi.org/10.1093/jsh/shac066 Published: 31 January 2023 Views Article contents Cite Cite Spencer J Weinreich, Why Early Modern Mass Incarceration Matters: The Bamberg Malefizhaus, 1627–31, Journal of Social History, Volume 56, Issue 4, Summer 2023, Pages 719–752, https://doi.org/10.1093/jsh/shac066 Select Format Select format .ris (Mendeley, Papers, Zotero) .enw (EndNote) .bibtex (BibTex) .txt (Medlars, RefWorks) Download citation Close Permissions Icon Permissions Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Navbar Search Filter Journal of Social HistoryThis issue Social and Cultural HistoryBooksJournalsOxford Academic Mobile Enter search term Search Close Navbar Search Filter Journal of Social HistoryThis issue Social and Cultural HistoryBooksJournalsOxford Academic Enter search term Search Advanced Search Search Menu Abstract In 1627, at the height of the Bamberg witch-hunt (1595–1631), the prince-bishopric erected the Malefizhaus (“witchcraft-house”), the first cellular prison purpose-built for solitary confinement. This article recovers the history of the Malefizhaus to establish the importance of imprisonment and carceral institutions to the early modern witch-craze. The prison at once concretized the ideology of the hunt and furnished a fearsome weapon of persecution, extracting the confessions without which no inquisitorial campaign could function. By reconstructing the singular architecture and internal regimen of the Malefizhaus, this article demonstrates the sophistication of early modern interrogations, a process distorted by an outsized interest in torture. Having recognized the Malefizhaus as a driver of the witch-hunt, it is possible to recognize the prison’s impact upon Bamberg’s seventeenth-century history—disrupting political and economic relationships, displacing populations, and disciplining social life. The case of the Bamberg witches’ prison counters the modernist slant of the study of the prison, proof that medieval and early modern carceral institutions shaped the history of their societies, despite smaller scales and weaker state apparatuses. In turn, the essay argues that the critical tools of carceral studies, developed to study contemporary mass incarceration, can profitably be applied to premodern practices and institutions, offering insight into patterns of violence, the development of repressive structures, and the problems of “crime” as a historical category. Issue Section: Article © The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: [email protected] article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/pages/standard-publication-reuse-rights) You do not currently have access to this article. 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