ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The witch-hunt was a shocking episode in history. Thousands of people all over Europe were deliberately tortured and killed by the authorities, in the name of religion and morality. Witch-hunting has to be studied in the broader context of European history between about 1400 and 1750 the period when significant witch-hunting occurred. The core primary sources for witch-hunting are records of witchcraft trials. Some studies have ventured beyond this core evidence, to consider documents that are not about witchcraft at all for instance, records of other community interactions in places where witchcraft trials occurred. Another important type of evidence for witch-hunting is demonological writings. The existence of witches was never taken for granted it had to be proved. Demonology was bound up with the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Scientific Revolution three vast and related developments in cultural, religious and intellectual history.
