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Posted by: Nathan Dorn
One of the perplexing aspects of the surge in witch trials that took place in Europe between the 15th and the 18th centuries is the question of how much the personal experiences of that era’s legal personnel influenced the practice of criminal justice throughout the period. In a previous post on this blog, we saw …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
Erika Hope Spencer discusses avenues for research in Library of Congress collections on the subject of Witchcraft.
Posted in: Collections, Law Library, Women's History
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
In recent posts on this blog, I have written about the evidence used in 17th-century witch trials, both in America and in England. In those posts, I pointed out that proving the crime of witchcraft was no simple matter. Rules for evidence in criminal trials were not yet formalized at that time, and opinions about …
Posted in: Collections
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
Not long ago, I wrote a post on this blog about the use of spectral evidence in a criminal trial. Spectral evidence was testimony in which witnesses claimed that the accused appeared to them and did them harm in a dream or a vision. The Court of Oyez and Terminer that presided over the Salem …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
Our latest rare book video features the Malleus Maleficarum, a 15th century treatise used to try persons accused of witchcraft.
Posted in: Collections, Law Library
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
Nathan discusses Henry Carey Lea, an independent scholar who by himself was an era in American Medieval Studies
Posted in: Collections, Law Library
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
“There are two motives that have induced me to prefix a few lines by way of preface to the reader of the ensuing book. One is, that it is generally expected, and a book seems to come naked into the world without a preface; tho’ sometimes little or nothing to the purpose: but since custom …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
Nathan discusses trial by ordeal and the dangers of too much judicial combat in the works of Friedrich Majer
Posted in: Collections, Law Library
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
Last Halloween, a post on this blog introduced the subject of witch trials in France from the 15th through the 18th centuries. In this post, I would like to take a look at one of the most important French works on the crime of witchcraft and its prosecution, a book that gave considerable encouragement to …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library