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~ the thumbscrews ~
Simple and very efficient, the crushing of the
knuckles, phalanges and nails of fingers and toes is among the
oldest of tortures.
The Venetian instrument (left) with three crossbars can accommodate two thumbs and four fingers, but the Austrian device (right) can accommodate more than that. These were used to get confessions, since at the time and place these were used, torture had been abolished.
"Everyone accused of any misdeed, and unwilling to confess freely, to the peinliche Fragen, the "painful questions" –that is, the extortion of confessions by means of a graduated series of torments that were described and illustrated with precision and scientific rationalism, down to the finest details, including the thicknesses of cords, the number of knots in a fetter, the lengths of nails and screws, the degrees of permanent mutilation permissible for various degrees of accusations."
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