Stephen Cummins and Laura Kounine are Post-Doctoral Fellows at the Centre for the History of Emotions at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany.

• Introduction: confronting conflict in early modern Europe, Stephen Cummins and Laura Kounine. Part I Rethinking Disputes and Settlements: Rethinking Disputes and Settlements: how historians can use legal anthropology, John Jordan; At the crossroads of feud and law: settling disputes in early modern Tuscany, Marco Cavarzere. Part II Mediation, Reconciliation, Coexistence: ‘Types’ of peacemakers: exploring the authority and self-perception of the early modern papacy, Christian Schneider; Mediation and reconciliation among 17th-century French high aristocrats, Christian Kühner; Containing confessional conflict in the military: the Holy Roman Empire c. 1650, Nikolas Funke; Colonial conflicts: factional disputes in two Portuguese settlements in Asia, Tara Alberts. Part III Law, Courts and Conflict: Contesting public executions in Paris towards the end of the Wars of Religion, Tom Hamilton; Contested coexistence: lay-clerical disputes and their settlement in the late medieval Hungarian countryside, Gabriella Erdélyi; The witch on trial: narratives of conflict and community in early modern Germany, Laura Kounine; Forgiving crimes in early modern Naples, Stephen Cummins. Afterword, Stuart Carroll; Index.