Kateryna Dysa
Historia z wiedźmami. Procesy o czary w ukraińskich województwach Rzeczpospolitej XVII i XVIII wieku
“A History with Witches. Witch Trials in the Ukrainian Provinces of the Commonwealth in the 17th and 18th Centuries”
Kateryna Dysa’s book is a groundbreaking study of witchcraft trials in the former Ukrainian voivodeships of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The author proposes new contexts and questions for sources that have long been the subject of research, such as the 1877 book “Czary. Dokumenty – procesy” (Witchcraft. Documents – Trials) by Ukrainian archaeologist and ethnographer Volodymyr Antonovych. She also reaches for documents that no one has studied before, such as “The Black Book of Krzemieniec 1747-1777”. In total, she analyzes 198 cases of witchcraft trials, mainly from the 17th and 18th centuries. In the book, she also deals with the scientific discourse on the subject of witchcraft, referring to contemporary debates. She also convincingly proves that on Ukrainian lands, witchcraft trials gained momentum primarily when representatives of power felt threatened and wanted to use the court as a way to silence the disobedient.