ABSTRACT
Thomas Potts’s enormous quarto is probably the most famous account of English witches ever written, a fact reflected in the number of publications based on it, and the organising of a conference in April 1999, at St Martin’s College, Lancaster, entirely devoted to it and the events it describes. This very long account, printed by William Stansby for John Barnes, exists in two editions: the one used here is the second, with its additional page of errata and Potts’s full name (originally T.P. Esquier). A copy of the first edition, as well as the edition used here, is in the Bodleian Library. Entered in the Stationers’ Register on 7 November 1612, the pamphlet is a unique recreation of the process of a witch-trial, and an instructive glimpse of the anxiety of the legal authorities to publish and justify their actions against these particular witches. It reverts firmly to the model of writing about witchcraft which involves the reproduction of legal documents.
