Daemonologie (Unabridged‪)‬

Daemonologie

In Forme of a Dialogie

Divided into three Books

Published in 1597

By King James I

In 1597, a series of witch trials were held in Scotland which resulted in about 200 executions.   

The Scottish King James VI (who became James I of England in 1603) took a great interest in the trials and was inspired to write Daemonologie, a text in which the detection and classification of acts of sorcery and the resulting judicial processes are discussed in the form of a Socratic dialogue.

In an appendix, entitled News From Scotland, the author discusses the case of John Fian,  who was executed for witchcraft in 1591.