DISSINET Data on Witchcraft Trials featured on Aktuálně.cz

In 2022, DISSINET researchers and affiliated undergraduate students at Masaryk University published the most comprehensive digital dataset of witchcraft trials in the Czech lands, beginning with the earliest case of 1491 and covering 257 trials until 1785. The dataset recorded the year of each trial, the suspects’ names, their sex, places of residence, charges, results of the trial, places of interrogation, and the material substances suspects were charged with using to perform magic.

As we made a point to make this data publicly accessible on Zenodo, we are pleased to share that the popular online publication Aktuálně.cz has utilised our dataset to prepare a map of these witchcraft trials. The map provides a helpful visualisation of which regions witnessed the greatest number of trials, with northern Moravia standing out above all. The article also includes a timeline representing the incidence of trials decade by decade over the three centuries and an image comparing the frequency of various types of accusations – for instance, accusations of explicitly demonic magic versus magic harmful to people and their property (it turns out the latter was far more common). As the article rightly points out, a notable feature of the witchcraft trials was that men were accused and stood trial as often as women.

DISSINET is proud that our work has served as an inspiration for others to engage with both data-oriented historical research and the exciting topics of how medieval and early modern communities reacted to nonconformist beliefs and practices. More broadly, we hope the publication of this article shows fellow quantitative researchers how valuable it can be to make your data publicly available online. You never know when someone new might recognise its potential.

If you are interested in exploring other datasets, see, for example, our network data on incriminations in the Bologna inquisition register from 1291–1310 or a geocoded dataset of early Christian baptisteries from another project at the Centre for the Digital Research of Religion.