In 1725, the sudden deaths of 9 persons in a rural Serbian village caused a mob of villagers to believe the culprit responsible was the specter of a vampire buried among the graves. They exhumed the body of Peter Plogojowitz who died 10 weeks prior and demanded an Imperial Cameral Provisor named Ernst Frombald to conduct a visitation of the body and allow for the body’s execution and destruction. Frombald detailed the circumstances of these events and the findings observed from his visitation in a report that was sent to the Imperial Administration of the region in Vienna. Being subsequently printed in the 58th issue of a periodical entitled Wienerisches Diarium on 21 July, 1725, the news of this event caused an academic controversy of the day to determine the true nature of the phenomena discovered upon a seemingly incorruptible long-dead body without the typical signs of natural bodily decay in the midst of mass death. 300 years later, this issue is reproduced for the modern lover of obscure events in history that helped establish the fundamental principles of natural philosophy and the methods for scientific discovery in death scenes.

This is a reproduction of the complete 58th issue of Wienerisches Diarium, dated 21. July, 1725.

The contents of this 12 page news pamphlet include:

• Narrative of the burglary and murder of a miller by a gang of bandits, whose wife and child were hidden and survived.
• The hanging of a banker and the burning of his wife at the stake, who defrauded his creditors 100,000 thaler and ignored their appeals
• A mob of 50 gypsies invaded a preacher’s land, brutally massacring and dismembering the members of his family and their servants. The surviving daughter and her personal servants escaped when the screams were first heard.
• The conflict between France and Spain and the wrecking of merchant ships.
• The sinking of a ship carrying 150 people who all drowned.
• Descriptions of the travels and activities of high nobility.
• News of the Turkish Sultan forcing the relocation of nearly all of the Crimean Tartars to return to Persia.
• Members of a gang of robbers who murdered and plundered many were arrested and hunt-parties were sent out to seek the rest.
• The news of the trials of five criminal delinquents.
• List of marriages and deaths.
• Various political matters.
• “Copy of a report from the Gradisker District in Hungary” written by Imperial Provisor Frombald detailing the exhumation and execution of the deceased Peter Plogojowitz. Blamed as a vampire after the sudden deaths of 9 persons and found to be without decay.