WITCHCRAFT: A HISTORY IN 13 TRIALS

In Witchcraft, Professor Marion Gibson uses thirteen significant trials to tell the global history of witchcraft and witch-hunts.

As well as exploring the origins of witch-hunts through some of the most famous trials from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century, it takes us in new and surprising directions. Three women were prosecuted under a version of the 1735 Witchcraft Act as recently as 2018.

Professor Gibson also tells the stories of the ‘witches’ – mostly women like Helena Scheuberin, Anny Sampson and Joan Wright, whose stories have too often been overshadowed by those of the powerful men, such as King James I and ‘Witchfinder General’ Matthew Hopkins, who hounded them.

Once a tool invented by demonologists to hurt and silence their enemies, witch trials have been twisted and transformed over the course of history and the lines between witch and witch-hunter blurred. For the fortunate, a witch-hunt is just a metaphor, but, as this book makes clear, witches are truly still on trial.

ISBN: 9781398508538
Imprint: Simon & Schuster UK
Publication Date: 18 December 2024
Dimensions: 132mm x 198mm
Weight: 270g
No. Of Pages: 320