ABSTRACT
By writing in Latin Remy asserted his status as a humanist intellectual who sought an international readership; he may also have felt that a publication of this kind would do particular honour to his master the Duke of Lorraine. The prefatory material to the book gives an account of the circumstances in which it was written, and of Remy's methods and motives, which needs to be read attentively but with some caution. Historians have not surprisingly tended to take Remy at his own valuation, seen him as a judge with extensive courtroom experience, and often gone on to describe him as an active witch-hunter. Remy clearly shared this view, drawing heavily on classical sources to back up his contemporary material; at one point he followed Jean Bodin when he identified the Little Masters of the witches with the pagan gods men had once worshipped.
