Sources

The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe

Citation Formats

General Reference

Divinity Atlas. "The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/sources/the-witch-hunt-in-early-modern-europe.

APA Style

Divinity Atlas. (n.d.). The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/sources/the-witch-hunt-in-early-modern-europe

BibTeX

@misc{divinityatlas-the-witch-hunt-in-early-modern-europe,
  author = {Divinity Atlas},
  title = {The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/sources/the-witch-hunt-in-early-modern-europe},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Brian Levack is a historian of early modern Europe, and this academic book, published by Routledge and now in multiple editions, is one of the standard scholarly surveys of the European witch trials, synthesizing legal, religious and social historical research to explain why the trials happened when and where they did. Its strength is that it works as a synthesis across the whole documented phenomenon, comparing regions and periods rather than focusing on one local case, and it is explicit about which causal explanations are well supported by the trial records and which remain debated among historians. Its limit is that, as a broad synthesis, it necessarily treats regional case studies in less depth than a dedicated local study would, so for the fine grained detail of any single region's trials a specialist regional study is the better source.

Facts

Assessment

Reliability Tier

Brian Levack's standard scholarly synthesis of the early modern European witch trials, published by Routledge; its own estimate of roughly 60,000 executions from about 100,000 trials sits within the range other regional syntheses give, 40,000 to 50,000, rather than as a single settled figure.

Notes

The fourth edition (2016) gives an estimate of roughly forty five thousand executions for witchcraft across Europe in the early modern period, revised down from the sixty thousand given in the book's first two editions as more regional archival counts came in lower than once assumed; other regional syntheses converge on a similar order, broadly forty thousand to fifty thousand.

Citation

Author

Brian P. Levack

Publisher

Routledge

This entry's own URL is Routledge's own listing for this title.

Publication Year

2016

URL

https://www.routledge.com/The-Witch-Hunt-in-Early-Modern-Europe/Levack/p/book/9781138808102

Source Type

academic monograph

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Europe

This source names Europe directly: "Levack is a historian of early modern Europe, and this academic book, published by Routledge and now in multiple editions, is one of the standard scholarly surveys of the European witch trials..."

Source The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern EuropeBrian P. Levack

Claims Backed By This Source (75 claims)

This source backs 75 claims across the atlas. As facts: 52 well-attested, 3 scholarly debate, 1 popular myth - corrected. As cited relationships: 5 holds. Plus 14 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.

Disposition By Topic

Esoteric Texts, 20 claims: 13 well-attested, 3 scholarly debate, 1 popular myth - corrected, 3 general references.
Religious Events, 19 claims: 14 well-attested, 2 holds, 3 general references.
Sources, 9 claims: 8 well-attested, 1 holds.
Articles, 6 claims: 6 well-attested.
Studies, 6 claims: 5 well-attested, 1 general references.
Historical Figures, 4 claims: 3 well-attested, 1 general references.
Sacred Objects & Ritual Items, 4 claims: 2 well-attested, 1 holds, 1 general references.
Disciplines, 2 claims: 1 well-attested, 1 general references.
Goetic Demons, 2 claims: 2 general references.
Religions, 2 claims: 1 holds, 1 general references.
Denominations, 1 claims: 1 general references.