Early Modern Resources

An excellent resource for the history of the 1692 witchcraft trials (University of Virginia)

Selected materials for a useful teaching resource (Douglas Linder)

A range of resources; includes sections about daily life, religion, the Mathers, as well as the witch trials and The Crucible (Margo Burns)

an electronic resource for the history of witchcraft and witch-hunting in Scotland, consisting of a database of all people known to have been accused of witchcraft in early modern Scotland, along with supporting material (Julian Goodare, Lauren Martin, Joyce Miller and Louise Yeoman)

website for the records of the Court of Chivalry during its heyday between 1634 and 1640… covers a wide variety of topics relating to the social, political and cultural history of the period, from ship money and the Bishops' Wars to pew disputes and duelling, from heralds visitations and grants of arms to brawls in the street and quarrels at race meetings.

A basic guide to the courts: ‘the intention is that researchers knowing only the name of the court whose documents they are consulting can easily determine its position in the judicial hierarchy, its predecessors and successors, and its general competence’ (Donald Fyson)

A lively (if not very scholarly) essay about the culture of the duel in early modern England (Maelgwyn Dda)

article by Joy Wiltenberg, discussing early print representations of crime (History Cooperative)
From American Historical Review, 109.5 (2004?)

webpages for a University of Warwick MA course covering ‘the methodological and theoretical issues involved in researching and writing on violence in Europe between c. 1500 and c. 1700′.

A selection of original sources (printed and archival) on crime in Wales, c.1500-1800 (at this site)

Online primary and secondary source materials and web resources (Internet Archive of Texts and Documents)

Original court records digitised, with bibliography (National Library of Wales)

essay by Alan Macfarlane; an early example of anthropologically-influenced historical study of the subject
chapter in Mary Douglas (ed), Witchcraft, Confessions and Accusations (Tavistock, 1970)

Book extract: chapter from Crime and Society in early modern Seville (1980) by Mary Elizabeth Perry, looks at the women of the Seville ‘underworld’ and the city authorities’ attempts to deal with them as a perceived threat to order (Library of Iberian Resources Online)