A comparative analysis of early witch trials in Lucerne, Nuremberg and Basel, within the context of criminal justice and social control. The case of Lucerne presents a fascinating interplay between witch trials and a transformation in the city's criminal procedure on one hand, and between witchcraft fears and social control on the other.

LAURA PATRICIA STOKES Assistant Professor of History at Stanford University in California, USA. She has previously published articles on the integration of torture into ordinary judicial procedure and the development of the witch stereotype during the fifteenth century.

List of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction Evil by any Other Name: Defining Witchcraft PART I: WITCH TRIALS IN THE CITIES Basel: Territorialization and Rural Autonomy Nuremberg: The Malleus that Never Struck Lucerne: Urban Witch Hunters A Revolution in Criminal Justice Between Two Worlds: Fifteenth-century Justice at the Threshold of the Early Modern The Advancing Death Penalty and the Re-imagining of Magical Crimes PART III: REFORMING ZEAL AND PERSECUTION IN LUCERNE Urban Reform and Social Control Witchcraft, Sodomy, and the Demonization of Crime Conclusion Appendix: Selected trial documents Notes Bibliography Index