Instruments of Judicial Torture

Instruments of Judicial Torture

Strappado, Estrapade

The method of strappado involved tying the suspect's hand behind her/his back, then suspending the victim in the air by means of a rope tied to the wrists. This procedure often disolocated both shoulders. To intensify the pain this inflicted, the patient might be bounced by the rope; or weights might be tied to the victim's ankles. One advantage of this method was that it left no external mark on the body of the accused.

Depicted here is the interrogation under torture given to the Swiss mercenary, Hans Spiess, who had been accused of murdering his wife, Margret. In this scene, A judge reads the interrogatoria to Spiess and records his answers. At the left, an executioner stands at the ready to hoist him up a notch. At Spiess's feet are weights to aggravate the pain of stappado. As we saw last week, Spiess maintained his innocence throughout the trial and was found guilty only after he failed a bleeding corpse ordeal. This image is from the Lucern Chronicle of Diebold Schilling (<1460-1515?).

Another torture device—the “rack”—was a more controlled variation of the same technique. A page from the Constitutio criminalis Theresiana—shows the culprit tied by his wrists to a ladder-like structure, in the same manner as strappado, with the legs attached by rope to a roller with a rachet mechanism that enabled the executioner to increase or decrease more precisely the level of pain and bodily dislocation.

Source: Eidgenössische Chronik des Luzerners Diebold Schilling (1513). Image source: Wikimedia Commons.

Screws

Screws were another common torture implement, all of which were designed inflict pain by applying pressure to the bony extremities—fingers, thumbs, shins, and feet. Most of the devices in this group consisted of two plates, studded with knobs or spikes which were applied to the finger or leg and then progressively squeezed by means of screws to inflict the desired measure of pain.

Pictured here is a shin- or leg-screw from the Constitutio criminalis Theresiana, published in 1769, a code of criminal procedure for the lands subject to the Habsburg monarchy—a sprawling territory comprising the modern territories of Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, and parts of Romania. Its purpose was to standardize judicial torture throughout the Habsburg lands.

Source: Constitutio criminalis Theresiana oder der Römisch-Kayserl. zu Hungarn und Böheim etc. etc. Königl. Apost. Majestät Mariä Theresiä Erzherzogin zu Oesterreich etc. etc. peinliche Gerichtsordnung (Vienna: Edlen von Trattnern, 1569). Image source: habsburger.net.

Water Torture

The use of water torture was less widespread than either strappado or the screws, and appears to have been employed primarily in France, Spain, and the Low Countries. This image of the so-called “French Torture” (tortura gallica) comes from the Praxis criminis persequendi (1541), a manual for the criminal procedure, including the application of judicial torture, by Jean Milles de Souvigny who dedicated the treatise to King François I. In 1576, the Flemish Anabaptist, Raphael van de Velde, included included in a prison-letter to his son the following account of his own experience with water torture:

“And as they did still not obtain anything from me, to the implication of my neighbor, Master Hans took water (during the entire time a cloth had lain on my face), and holding my nose shut with one hand, began to pour water on my abdomen and thence all over my breast, and into my mouth; even as one should drink when he is very thirsty. I think that the can from which he poured out – the water held about three pints. And when I was at the end of my breath, and wanted to fetch such, I drew the water all into my body, whereupon I suffered such distress, that it would be impossible for me to relate or describe it.”

Van de Velde was subsequently found guilty of heresy and was burned at the stake in Ghent on July 14, 1576.

Source: Jean Milles de Souvigny, Praxis criminis persequendi, elegantibus aliquot figuris illustrata (Paris: Simon Colin, 1541). Image source: The European Library.

	Strappado, Estrapade The method of strappado involved tying the suspect's hand behind her/his back, then suspending the victim in the air by means of a rope tied to the wrists. This procedure often disolocated both shoulders. To intensify the pain this inflicted, the patient might be bounced by the rope; or weights might be tied to the victim's ankles. One advantage of this method was that it left no external mark on the body of the accused. Depicted here is the interrogation under torture given to the Swiss mercenary, Hans Spiess, who had been accused of murdering his wife, Margret. In this scene, A judge reads the interrogatoria to Spiess and records his answers. At the left, an executioner stands at the ready to hoist him up a notch. At Spiess's feet are weights to aggravate the pain of stappado. As we saw last week, Spiess maintained his innocence throughout the trial and was found guilty only after he failed a bleeding corpse ordeal. This image is from the Lucern Chronicle of Diebold Schilling (<1460-1515?). Another torture device—the “rack”—was a more controlled variation of the same technique. A page from the Constitutio criminalis Theresiana—shows the culprit tied by his wrists to a ladder-like structure, in the same manner as strappado, with the legs attached by rope to a roller with a rachet mechanism that enabled the executioner to increase or decrease more precisely the level of pain and bodily dislocation. Source: Eidgenössische Chronik des Luzerners Diebold Schilling (1513). Image source: Wikimedia Commons.

	Screws Screws were another common torture implement, all of which were designed inflict pain by applying pressure to the bony extremities—fingers, thumbs, shins, and feet. Most of the devices in this group consisted of two plates, studded with knobs or spikes which were applied to the finger or leg and then progressively squeezed by means of screws to inflict the desired measure of pain. Pictured here is a shin- or leg-screw from the Constitutio criminalis Theresiana, published in 1769, a code of criminal procedure for the lands subject to the Habsburg monarchy—a sprawling territory comprising the modern territories of Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, and parts of Romania. Its purpose was to standardize judicial torture throughout the Habsburg lands. Source: Constitutio criminalis Theresiana oder der Römisch-Kayserl. zu Hungarn und Böheim etc. etc. Königl. Apost. Majestät Mariä Theresiä Erzherzogin zu Oesterreich etc. etc. peinliche Gerichtsordnung (Vienna: Edlen von Trattnern, 1569). Image source: habsburger.net.

	Water Torture The use of water torture was less widespread than either strappado or the screws, and appears to have been employed primarily in France, Spain, and the Low Countries. This image of the so-called “French Torture” (tortura gallica) comes from the Praxis criminis persequendi (1541), a manual for the criminal procedure, including the application of judicial torture, by Jean Milles de Souvigny who dedicated the treatise to King François I. In 1576, the Flemish Anabaptist, Raphael van de Velde, included included in a prison-letter to his son the following account of his own experience with water torture: “And as they did still not obtain anything from me, to the implication of my neighbor, Master Hans took water (during the entire time a cloth had lain on my face), and holding my nose shut with one hand, began to pour water on my abdomen and thence all over my breast, and into my mouth; even as one should drink when he is very thirsty. I think that the can from which he poured out – the water held about three pints. And when I was at the end of my breath, and wanted to fetch such, I drew the water all into my body, whereupon I suffered such distress, that it would be impossible for me to relate or describe it.” Van de Velde was subsequently found guilty of heresy and was burned at the stake in Ghent on July 14, 1576. Source: Jean Milles de Souvigny, Praxis criminis persequendi, elegantibus aliquot figuris illustrata (Paris: Simon Colin, 1541). Image source: The European Library.