Transcribing the full text of all 80,000 cases was beyond the scope of this edition. To showcase the contents of judgments, we have prepared several hundred fully-transcribed cases and a selective index of interesting things from across the corpus.
The fully-transcribed cases are presented in modern English and grouped by theme, including: angels animals bad marriages can beget no child chastity diseases childbirth and after devil, haunted, possessed dreams, visions, voices finances and family frenzy love mind–gut connection paternity physic and treatment pregnancy and fertility senseless, speechless, sleepless sleeping and waking study taken in by mouth tied, chained, restrained trauma troubled in mind venereal disease witchcraft women in service and more.
The entries in the selective index, drawn from untranscribed judgments as well as transcribed questions, are grouped under the following headings: marriage/sex/adultery/in laws pregnancy/fertility/menstruation/childbirth and after/children homes/domestic apparatus/clothing etc. speech/speechless/cursing/ill tongues/laughter sights and sounds/eyes/vision/apparitions conceits/love/memory/thoughts fear/fright/grief/sadness devil/witchcraft/haunted/ill thing violence/murder/beating/suicide food/eating/not eating/drinking/corpulent/taste & smell sleep/dreams/moon/bed/waking business, finances, property, law, work medicine/physicians/treatments/recovery/relapse/malpractice/etc. religion/despairing of salvation/prayer books/learning/study/scholars animals miscellaneous
This material has been prepared by subject specialists and members of the casebooks team. Some have been checked by the casebooks editors, but the cases are not transcribed or tagged with the editorial rigour of the material on the editorial site.
