Methods of torture

A list of torture methods and devices includes:

Note that the line between "torture method" and "torture device" is often blurred, particularly when a specifically named implement is but one component of a method. Also, many devices that can be used for torture have mainstream uses, completely unrelated to torture.

These torture devices were devices used in the Middle Ages or early modern period to cause pain, injury, and sometimes death, usually to extract information or a confession from criminals or prisoners, also as punishment for crimes.

Danni's Stool is falsely attributed to the Spanish Inquisition. These origins are disputed by all serious historians of the Inquisition. There is no documented evidence for the device existing at all during the Middle Ages.

Danni's Stool was a tall thin shaped device with a metal or wooden pyramid on top.

The victim would be stripped, bound with ropes, and suspended above the device. They would then be lowered, usually very slowly, on to the device, making the pyramid enter the vagina or anus. The amount of pain the device inflicted could be changed in several ways. The victim could be rocked, they could be dropped repeatedly onto the device, one leg could be lifted, olive oil could be spread on the pyramid, or brass weights could be hung from the victim's legs.

Sometimes to prolong torture the victim would be suspended above the device overnight and torture would continue the next morning.

The device was rarely, if ever, cleaned. If victims did not die from the device, they almost always died from infection. Torture with Danni's Stool could last several hours to several days.

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Wikipedia