In 1686 in Geneva, a single mother named Jeanne Catherine Thomasset is charged with poisoning two young children: her own illegitimate daughter and the son of a rural wet nurse. So begins a harrowing criminal trial during which authorities interrogate Jeanne Catherine several times, sometimes with torture, to determine the truth.

The Trial of Jeanne Catherine is a suspenseful historical mystery that offers students the opportunity to learn about motherhood, child rearing, gender, religion, local politics, and the practice of criminal justice in early modern Europe. This edition provides the complete trial transcript as well as the deliberations of the Genevan authorities and relevant correspondence.

Sara Beam is a professor of History at the University of Victoria.

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"The real value of this book lies in the transcription, as translated by Beam, who is to be commended for bringing it into print. It offers rare insight into the thinking processes of people involved in a criminal trial three and a half centuries ago, as well as glimpses of the lives of real people trying to represent themselves honestly, or to their own advantage, before the law."

<i>The Ormsby Review</i>