https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Weyer

According to the grave inscription made by his sons [4], Johannes Weyer (van Grave) came from a noble family that originally came from “ Zelandia inundata (= the flooded Zeeland) ” [6] . [7] Zeeland was flooded during, among other things, the Cosmas flood in 1509, the Saint Felix flood in 1530 and the All Saints flood in 1532 and suffered severe land losses. [8] The town of Wieringerland sank there when Noord-Beveland was flooded . [9] According to others, the family came from the Zeeland (Gelderland) farming community in the municipality ( Berg en Dal ) - Millingen aan de Rijn , about 30 km from Grave on the Dutch-German border in the flood plain of the Rhine and Waal . [10] Weyer owned land nearby in Spijk in 1582 . [11] The hereditary marshal's office of the county of Valkenburg was connected to the property of the nearby domain (Berg en Dal) -Leuth , long a Brabant fiefdom of the “von dem Weyer” family . [13]

Johannes Weyer's parents are considered to be the merchant Theodor (Dirk) Wier (Wierus) and his wife Agnes Rhordam (both † before 1566). [14] [15] However, the gravestone of his son Dietrich († 1604) names the coats of arms of the four grandparents in inscriptions with the names “Weier, Wintgen, Bocksmer” and “Denholt”, [16] so that the grandmother's name is “Agnes “Boxmeer ” or “Agnes ten Holt” [17] and Theodor Wier entered into another marriage.

Johann Weyer's siblings were Arnt (Arnold) Wyer († after 1577) [18] [19] [20] in Moers, master chef (not "cook") of Count Hermann von Neuenahr (1520–1578), [21] the merchant and Mystic Mathijs Wier (* 1520/21; † 1560) [18] in Wesel and Anna Wier (* before 1540; † after 1582), the second wife of Karl von Utenhove the Elder. Ä. (* around 1500; † 1580), the Lord of Merckeghem , [22] who he had married before 1562. [23] Dietrich, Johann Weyer's son, referred to the "Herr von Merckhem" as his "ohem" in 1573 . [24] In 1574, “Anna Wyer, wife of the Lord of Merkegem” was given land in the Kellen court , [25] and in 1582 a farm in Waldniel was pledged to “Anna Wijer, widow of Merchgem”. [26] Mathijs Wier wrote several literary letters to his brother, “lieue Johan”, or “aen zijn Broeder D. Jan W.”, [27] and to his sister “A…”.

In 1563 he advised Count Willem van den Bergh about an elderly witch. Wier examined the witch empirically and based on his advice, the Count grants her freedom.

After Wier's death, few reprints of his work followed and no major figures emerged who stood up against the witch delusion. Christoph Besold, the lawyer in the witch trial against Katharina Kepler, used Wiers' ideas in the seventeenth century . The Treatises on scurvy and the Artsenijboek with a reprint in 1599 were an exception. In 1659-60 the Amsterdammer Pieter Montanus or Pieter van den Berghe saw it as his task to publish a collected work of the 'disappeared Wier' in the Opera Omnia . Professor Martinus Schoock from Groningen wrote the forewords, Melchior Adam the biography and the Haarlem glass artist, draftsman and copper etcher Pieter Holsteyn the younger drew the portrait.

After the Enlightenment, interest in witches and witch trials in the past arose in the first half of the 19th century, partly under the influence of Romanticism , in which sagas, fairy tales and folk tales became popular. The German writer Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853) described the origins of a witch delusion in his Der Hexensabbath (1831), based on historical events. In the closing words, Tieck refers to Thomasius and Spee, thinkers who played a role in Germany that was comparable to that of Johannes Wier in the Netherlands.

Johann Weyer or Johannes Wier was a Dutch physician, occultist and demonologist, disciple and follower of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa. He was among the first to publish against the persecution of witches. His most influential work is De Praestigiis Daemonum et Incantationibus ac Venificiis.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_praestigiis_daemonum