While there certainly were books being made in the Middle Ages and very early Renaissance, most of the population were practically illiterate. If there were any books, these would’ve been mostly read by a few select people. The level of literacy would’ve been comparable to what’s going on in some African countries today. Conversely speaking, the witchcraft beliefs in some African churches would’ve been a better idea of what books like ‘Discours des Sorciers’ were reporting and talking about.
I won’t be surprised if countries like Ghana and Zambia as well as studies on them would’ve given similar impressions to what occurred in early modern Europe. While cats got demonised in the late 1290s, I suspect the belief in demonic and bewitching dogs would’ve been earlier and more frequent than what most people believe at least according to a few select writers who carefully observed such things. It is with these books that we’ve a better idea of what Dante was writing about in the Divine Comedy centuries earlier.
There’s even a belief in cynanthropy or witches turning into dogs which’s commonly reported in demonology and witchcraft texts. There’s even substantial mention of the Devil appearing as a dog. Admittedly, I’m annoyed with that though there’s a study on witchcraft trials in Labourd where witches and wizards alike were noted for turning into both cats and dogs there were only a few specific examples of witches turning into cats.
As opposed to a study on witchcraft trials in the Channel Islands where there were more specific examples of witches turning into dogs though these were simply translations of each other. That and churches used to employ people to eliminate dogs. (If I remember* precisely, especially in the Infernal Dictionary a dog would be burnt for being a demon in disguise.)
But the belief in canine witchcraft, though seldom studied any further, deserves credit in how it influences not only the Divine Comedy but also Early Modern plays which shows how prevalent those beliefs are.
Here are excerpts on how prevalent those beliefs are:
Authority and Consent in Tudor England: Essays Presented to C.S.L. …
https://books.google.com.ph/books?isbn=0754606651
Clifford Stephen Lloyd Davies, G. W. Bernard, Steven J. Gunn – 2002 – Snippet view
Helen Smith was also sentenced to death at the assizes.3i But perhaps the most significant feature for our purposes in this 1579 account of witchcraft in Essex is Elizabeth Francis’s story of how she met her shaggy dog familiar. Francis had just been in an altercation with a neighbour, and was very angry when the dog appeared to her. These were, as many demortologists commented, the very circumstances in which the devil was most likely to appear to a potential witch. The devil was …
Witchcraft in the Middle Ages – Page 216
https://books.google.com.ph/books?isbn=0801492890
Jeffrey Burton Russell – 1972 – Preview – More editions
The Beginning of the Witch Craze of witchcraft and burnt.32 The trials were conducted by the secular courts and the fact that they specify witch characteristics in great detail suggests again that of the Inquisition’s responsibility in the development of the phenomenon … The witches at Simmenthal were accused of constituting a sect that met at Church on Sunday morning, not for mass, but to worship Satan. … He was a black rooster, a black dog, a black cat, a black crow, a pig, or a dog.
Le diable en procès: démonologie et sorcellerie à la fin du moyen âge
https://books.google.com.ph/books?isbn=2842921429 – Translate this page
Martine Ostorero, Étienne Anheim – 2003 – Snippet view – More editions
grands procès du moment et les révélations de la justice à ce sujet ont pu suffire à suggérer aux miniaturistes cette représentation du sabbat. L’image paraît particulièrement concordante avec les propos que l’inquisiteur d’Arras aurait tenus lors de son sermon général du 9 mai 1460. Il y affirmait en effet que les sorciers et les sorcières trouvaient au sabbat « un diable en forme de bouc, de chien, de singe, et aulcunes fois d’homme, et il l’adoraient et plusieurs d’entre eux lui donnaient …
The devil in trial: demonology and witchcraft at the end of the Middle Ages
https://books.google.com.ph/books?isbn=2842921429 – Translate this page
Martine Ostorero , ÉTIENNE ANHEIM – 2003 – Snippet view – More editions
The great trials of the moment and the revelations of justice on this subject have been enough to suggest to the miniaturists this representation of the Sabbath. The image seems particularly consistent with the words that the inquisitor of Arras would have held during his general sermon of May 9, 1460. He affirmed indeed that witches and witches found on the Sabbath “a devil in the shape of a goat, of dog , monkey, and aulcunes both man, and he adored him and many of them gave him …
*In another document, this time on Burgundy churches also used people to beat up dogs on the suspicion that they’re demons.
fynm 