This groundbreaking monograph explores the fascinating social context of "witchcraft" trials in Portugal during the long eighteenth century, when conventional medical practitioners, motivated by a desire to promote "scientific" medicine, worked within the Holy Office to prosecute superstitious folk healers.

Timothy D. Walker, Ph.D. (2001) in History, Boston University, is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. He has published numerous articles on early modern Portugal and the Portuguese colonies; subjects include the Inquisition, slave trading, and colonial medical adaption and dissemination.