The Doctor and the Witches: Magical Illness & The Cures of Carrichter

Tonight we are introduced to a doctor who specialised in treating people believed to be made ill by evil witchcraft.

In early modern Europe, evil-doing practitioners (“witches”) cursed people and caused them ill; and on the strength of this belief, some 50,000 people went to their deaths. Tonight we are introduced to a doctor who specialised in treating people believed to be made ill by evil witchcraft. Bartholomeus Carrichter lived c.1510–1567 in Switzerland and dedicated himself to curing the cursed; he even wrote a medico- magical guidebook on the subject, published in 1551. Catherine Rider talks us through the key points and most extraordinary highlights of Carrichter’s work, and in so doing opens up the world of witchcraft belief, particularly as it touched upon the world of medicine. Prepare for a host of sixteenth-century spells, anti-spells, cures and curses.

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