Weyer’s original Latin text is in the public domain. However, complete modern English translations are rare. The most accessible English version remains:
Legitimate ways to read or access the text: de praestigiis daemonum english translation pdf
Warning: Many websites claiming to offer a free PDF of the complete English translation are either (a) the Latin original mislabeled, (b) a short excerpt, or (c) pirated copies of the Mora translation. Downloading copyrighted translations without permission is illegal. Weyer’s original Latin text is in the public domain
Download the free Latin PDF from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek or Google Books. Then use a combination of AI (ChatGPT or Claude) and a Latin dictionary to translate sections. Modern LLMs are surprisingly good at 16th-century Latin. For a serious paper, you can translate chapter by chapter. Legitimate ways to read or access the text:
Weyer was a student of the great occult philosopher Cornelius Agrippa. Unlike later rationalists, Weyer fully believed in demons, the Devil, and magic. But he drew a sharp line: witches, he argued, were not willingly evil. Instead, they were deluded, melancholic, and physically ill. Their confessions of flying to sabbats, copulating with demons, and cursing crops were not real—they were praestigiae (illusions, deceptions) planted by demons.
This was revolutionary. In an era where Heinrich Kramer’s Malleus Maleficarum (The Witch’s Hammer) demanded the burning of witches, Weyer insisted that the “crime” of witchcraft was impossible. Only demons could perform supernatural harm. Old women who thought they were witches were pitiable victims of their own biology and demonic trickery.