Overview

The Parlement of Paris was the largest secular court in Christendom. Although its criminal archives have been preserved virtually intact, historians of the period of the great witch trials, as well as scholars of the Ancien Regime in general, have been discouraged by the notorious difficulties of research into them, and have effectively avoided these records. Alfred Soman has undertaken this task. In the 15 articles included here he contends that criminal justice in the 16th- and 17th century France was far more humane and less severe than traditional assumptions would suggest. As early as 1588, the High Court began to take steps to restrain indiscriminate witch hunting, particularly in the eastern provinces where prosecutions were instigated not in conformity with, but in defence of, the highest judicial authority in the land.

Full Product Details

Author:   Alfred Soman
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Variorum
Edition:   New edition
Volume:   CS 368
Weight:   0.800kg
ISBN:  

9780860783206

ISBN 10:   0860783200
Pages:   344
Publication Date:   30 April 1992
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Language:   French

Table of Contents

Contents: Avant-propos; Les proces de sorcellerie au Parlement de Paris (1565-1640); The Parlement of Paris and the great witch hunt (1565-1640); La sorcellerie vue du Parlement de Paris au debut du XVIIe siecle; Deviance and criminal justice in Western Europe, 1300-1800: an essay in structure; Le Registre consistorial de Coutras, 1582-1584; Aux origines de l'appel de droit dans l'Ordonnance criminelle de 1670; La justice criminelle aux XVIe-XVIIe siecles: le Parlement de Paris et les sieges subalternes; Pathologie historique: le temoignage des proces de bestialite aux XVIe-XVIIe siecles; La querelle de l'antimoine: Guy Patin sur la sellette; Un bA cher pour un judaA-sant: Jean Fontanier (1621); Le temoignage maquille: encore un aspect de l'infra-justice A l'epoque moderne; La decriminalisation de la sorcellerie en France; Trente proces de sorcellerie dans le Perche (1566-1624); Le rAle des Ardennes dans la decriminalisation de la sorcellerie en France; Decriminalizing witchcraft: does the French experience furnish a European model?; Corrigenda et addenda; Index.

Reviews

'...represents a very important contribution on the two major fronts indicated by the title. Soman's work is in many ways a remarkable demonstration of historical method.' English Historical Review

Author Information

Alfred Soman, C.N.R.S., France

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