Wilhelm Gottlieb Soldan’s Geschichte der Hexenprozesse is the foundational scholarly work on European witch trials, tracing the theological, legal, and social roots of mass persecution from the medieval period through the seventeenth century. This second volume examines the peak and eventual decline of witch-hunting across Germany and neighbouring lands, analysing individual trials and the demonological literature that fuelled them.
Rigorous and deeply researched, Soldan’s work shaped all subsequent study of early modern persecution and popular belief. Note: this text is in German.