Daemonologie
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.
