Marion Gibson: Witchcraft – A History in Thirteen Trials
Marion Gibson, Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials
Marion Gibson
Salem, King James VI, Malleus Maleficarum. The world of witch hunts and witch trials sounds antiquated, relics of an unenlightened and brutal age. However, ‘witch hunt’ is heard often in the present-day media, and the misogyny it is rooted in is all too familiar today. A woman was prosecuted under the 1735 Witchcraft Act as recently as 1944. This book uses thirteen significant trials to explore the history of witchcraft and witch hunts. As well as investigating some of the most famous trials from the middle ages to the 18th century, it takes us in new and surprising directions.
Marion Gibson is Professor of Renaissance and Magical Literatures at the University of Exeter, UK. She is the author of seven books on witches in history and literature including Reading Witchcraft, Possession, Puritanism and Print, Rediscovering Renaissance Witchcraft, Witchcraft: The Basics and more.
