"Voices from the Bench" is a collection of microhistorical essays written by an internationally-known group of scholars specializing in medieval and early modern social history, covering Europe and Mesoamerica. Each essay focuses on formerly anonymous folk by providing a microhistorical portrait drawn from such judicial sources as canonization hearings, the trials of the Inquisition, chancery, criminal, royal, municipal and other courts. Women, Jews, New Christians, witches, servants, midwives, children, the possessed, peasants, shepherds and urban-dwellers are among the often marginalized figures whose daily lives, struggles, mores, and popular beliefs are brought to life through a close reading of these sources.