Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials

InWitchcraft,Professor Marion Gibson uses thirteen significant trials to tell theglobal historyof witchcraft and witch-hunts. As well as exploring the origins of witch-hunts through some of themost famous trialsfrom 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 tellsthe 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.