Invoking the Akelarre: Voices of the Accused in the Basque Witch-Craze 1609–1614

Invoking the Akelarre examines the witchcraft prosecutions that swept through the French and Spanish Basque Country between 1609 and 1614. Emma Wilby works through trial records describing akelarre gatherings, harmful magic, black masses, cannibalistic feasts and encounters with the Devil, while placing these accounts within the social and religious life of Basque communities.

Rather than treating the accused as passive figures shaped entirely by inquisitorial questioning, Wilby considers how their own beliefs and experiences influenced the testimonies preserved in the records. Magical conjuration, liturgical cursing, domestic medicine, communal gatherings and popular Catholic observance all become part of the book’s analysis of how the witches’ sabbath took form in early 17th-century Europe.