"This book offers a comparison of lay and inquisitorial witchcraft prosecutions. In most of the early modern period, witchcraft jurisdiction in Italy rested with the Roman Inquisition, whereas in Denmark only the secular courts raised trials. Kallestrup explores the narratives o…
This book offers the first ever attempt to compare lay and inquisitorial witchcraft prosecutions. In most of the early modern period, jurisdiction in Italy relating to witchcraft rested with the Roman Inquisition, whereas in Denmark only the secular courts raised trials. Kallest…
"In 1631, at the epicentre of the worst excesses of the European witch-hunts, Friedrich Spee, a Jesuit priest, published the ""Cautio Criminalis"", a book speaking out against the trials that were sending thousands of innocent people to gruesome deaths. Spee, who had himself min…
The Cautio Criminalis is one of the most important and moving works in the history of witch trials and a revealing documentation of one man's unexpected humanity in a brutal age. Marcus Hellyer's accessible translation from the Latin makes it available to English-speaking audien…
"Driven by his priestly charge of enacting Christian charity, or love, Spee sought to expose the flawed arguments and methods used by the witch-hunters. His logic is relentless as he reveals the contradictions inherent in their arguments, showing there is no way for an innocent …
"In 1631, at the epicenter of the worst excesses of the European witch-hunts, Friedrich Spee, a Jesuit priest, published the Cautio Criminalis, a book speaking out against the trials that were sending thousands of innocent people to gruesome deaths. Spee, who had himself ministe…
Introduction -- Languages of defence -- Confession, conscience, and selfhood on trial -- Gender and emotions in the visual and intellectual imagination. This book explores levels of personhood through witch trials in early modern Germany. Witchcraft was not a uniquely female cr…
The Holy Roman Empire was the heartland of the witch craze, with around 23,000 witches executed in the early modern period. In this book, Laura Kounine uses case studies of witch trials in early modern Württemberg to examine how people sought to identify witches, and the ways in…
This book explores levels of personhood through witch trials in early modern Germany. Witchcraft was not a uniquely female crime; a significant minority of those tried for witchcraft in the Holy Roman Empire were men. Concepts of witchcraft also centred on the notion that emotio…
"On the morning of Thursday 29 June 1682, a magpie came rasping, rapping and tapping at the window of a prosperous Devon merchant. Frightened by its appearance, his servants and members of his family had, within a matter of hours, convinced themselves that the bird was an emissa…
