The belief in witches and witchcraft has been prevalent in most historical societies. Nonetheless, in no other historical context have dozens of thousands of people been publicly executed as devil-worshipping witches the way they did in Europe from the fifteenth to the late seventeenth century. Early modern European witch-hunting is thus considered a unique phenomenon of unparalleled magnitude. Questions pertaining to the persecution of witches are therefore at the forefront of historical research on early modern Europe. In this seminar, we shall analyze demonological treatises and inquisitorial manuals alongside trial records, and survey the main historiographical trends in the study of early modern witch-hunting