Between 1725 and 1735, Michael Ranft, a Lutheran clergyman born in Saxony, published a book titled De masticatione mortuorum in tumulis (Concerning the dead who chew in their graves), the German edition of which bears an intriguing subtitle: ‘Concerning the true nature of the Hungarian vampires and bloodsuckers.’ This fascinating text was an erudite response to popular belief that corpses could rise from their graves and spread disease among those they had once loved. The belief was a long-held one, and dated back to the horrific Black Death of the fourteenth century. But what did our Lutheran clergyman have to say about these ancient, superstitious beliefs? What did his erudite understanding of theology and medicine make of the Dead who Chew? Find out in today’s episode.
‘For a long time now, our fathers and mothers have been telling us stories of the “dead who chew” in the grave, but we thought it dishonorable to believe these tales and fables worthy of Aesop, and which impress only the little old women. Our reasons are easy to understand: we have not seen these “devouring dead” with our own eyes; our logical thinking has had no chance to understand this phenomenon, and the thing we fear most of all, more so than the bite of dogs or snakes, is to be accused of being superstitious.’
Michael Ranft, De masticatione mortuorum in tumulis, I-8
Contributor
Anton Serdeczny holds a doctorate in History from the École pratique des hautes études in Paris. After teaching early modern history in Marne-la-Vallée, Neuchâtel, Moscow, and Aix-Marseille, he is currently a visiting researcher at the European University Institute in Florence. His work focuses on the interactions of religion, culture and science, and particularly on the links between oral ritual culture and early modern medicine. He is the author of a book Du tabac pour le mort (2018), which argues that the development of medical resuscitation in the 18th century was an involuntary scholarly reworking of carnival rites and oral representations of resurrection.
Further reading
Mézes, Ádám, “Georg Tallar and the 1753 Vampire Hunt: Administration, Medicine and the Returning Dead in the Habsburg Banat”, in Éva Pócs (ed.), The Magical and Sacred Medical World (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019), 93-136.
Callard, Caroline, “Le fantôme et l’anthropologue: retour sur une scène primitive”, in Socio-anthropologie [on-line], 34 | 2016, mis en ligne le 09 février 2017, consulté le 20 novembre 2020. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/socio-anthropologie/2433 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/socio-anthropologie.2433.
Daston, Lorraine and Gianna Pomata, The Faces of Nature in Enlightenment Europe (Berlin: BWV-Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, 2003).
Martin, Philippe and Fabienne Henryot (dir.), Dom Augustin Calmet : un itinéraire intellectuel, actes du colloque, Nancy, 18-20 octobre 2007 (Paris: Riveneuve, 2008).
Ranft, Michael, Tractat von dem Kauen und Schmazen der Todten in Gräbern, Worin die wahre Beschaffenheit derer Hungarischen Vampyrs und Blut-Sauger gezeigt, auch alle von dieser Materie bisher zum Vorschein gekommene Schrifften recensiret werden (Leipzig: Teubners Buchladen, 1734).
Stomma, Ludwik, Campagnes insolites, Paysannerie polonaise et mythes européens (Lagrasse: Verdier, 1986).
Vermeir, Koen, “Vampires as Creatures of the Imagination: Theories of Body, Soul and Imagination in Early Modern Vampire Tracts (1659-1755)”, in Diseases of the Imagination and Imaginary Disease in the Early Modern Period (Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2012), 341-373.