Historiens kunnskap og kunnskap i historien: En undersøkelse av svartebøker i norske trolldomsprosesser

Sammendrag

The article examines five Norwegian witchcraft trials conducted between 1595 and 1639 in which svartebøker (magic books) – referred to by the court, among other terms, as ‘books of witchcraft’ – appear as confiscated items of evidence. The point of departure is how these books were understood by the court, and how the accused explained their contents. Drawing on Arne Bugge Amundsen’s close-reading strategy as outlined in the article “Historiens tale og tale i historien”, the article demonstrates how ‘questions as method’ may serve as a productive approach to understanding historical sources. Through this methodological discussion, the article also seeks to show how the courtroom functioned as an arena in which different conceptualisations of knowledge were negotiated among the actors involved. When the confiscated books were defined and described in court, the knowledge and epistemological assumptions of the accused were subjected to pressure: for the court, the books represented witchcraft, whereas for the accused, they contained remedies intended to heal the sick