Dysa, K. (2008). Istoriia z vidmamy. Sudy pro chary v ukrainskykh voievodstvakh Rechi Pospolytoi XVII–XVIII stolit [A history with witches: Witchcraft trials in the Ukrainian voivodeships of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 17th–18th centuries]. Krytyka.
Annotation: The central subjects of this book by young historian and Kyiv-Mohyla Academy lecturer Kateryna Dysa are the beliefs of the early modern Ukrainian population of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth concerning witchcraft and sorcery, accusations of witchcraft, and the conflicts that led to such accusations. Readers are invited on a deeply engaging intellectual, and at times detective-like journey behind the scenes of the trial proceedings. The trials themselves, the author argues, are only the outer shell: before reaching the historian’s hands, court documents passed through several distinctive filters. A witch’s words were recorded, or rather, retold and interpreted by a court scribe, so the written record did not necessarily correspond to what was actually said; it is not always clear what meaning the accused, the witnesses, or the judges attached to particular words, nor with what tone or intonation those words were spoken.
What did the local version of the “Inquisition” look like? What actually took place during the trials, and what preceded them? Under what laws and procedures were witchcraft cases heard? What role did gossip, prejudice, superstition, bigotry, and intolerance play? What place was given to torture? The author compares legal prescriptions with actual judicial practice, analyzes the social and religious composition of trial participants, examines verdicts in witchcraft cases, and identifies what most commonly aroused suspicion and led to accusations of witchcraft. Working with witchcraft trial materials, she notes, the greatest challenge is finding the balance between taking every recorded word at face value and excessive skepticism toward fantastic tales of enchantment. A complete picture of events cannot be reconstructed, the author concludes — and readers must bear in mind that these stories are not products of reality but of human fears, experiences, fantasies, and suspicions. If modern readers find stories of bewitched children or animals naive and implausible, this does not mean that an early modern person would have received them in the same way.