The Realities of Witchcraft and Popular Magic in Early Modern Europe
Title | The Realities of Witchcraft and Popular Magic in Early Modern Europe PDF eBook |
Author | E. Bever |
Publisher | Springer |
Pages | 643 |
Release | 2008-06-11 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0230582117 |
Exploring the elements of reality in early modern witchcraft and popular magic, through a combination of detailed archival research and broad-ranging interdisciplinary analyses, this book complements and challenges existing scholarship, and offers unique insights into this murky aspect of early modern history.
Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe
Title | Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe PDF eBook |
Author | Jonathan Barry |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Pages | 392 |
Release | 1998-03-12 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 9780521638753 |
This important collection brings together both established figures and new researchers to offer fresh perspectives on the ever-controversial subject of the history of witchcraft. Using Keith Thomas's Religion and the Decline of Magic as a starting point, the contributors explore the changes of the last twenty-five years in the understanding of early modern witchcraft, and suggest new approaches, especially concerning the cultural dimensions of the subject. Witchcraft cases must be understood as power struggles, over gender and ideology as well as social relationships, with a crucial role played by alternative representations. Witchcraft was always a contested idea, never fully established in early modern culture but much harder to dislodge than has usually been assumed. The essays are European in scope, with examples from Germany, France, and the Spanish expansion into the New World, as well as a strong core of English material.
Superstition and Magic in Early Modern Europe: A Reader
Title | Superstition and Magic in Early Modern Europe: A Reader PDF eBook |
Author | Helen L. Parish |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
Pages | 409 |
Release | 2014-11-20 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1441100326 |
Superstition and Magic in Early Modern Europe brings together a rich selection of essays which represent the most important historical research on religion, magic and superstition in early modern Europe. Each essay makes a significant contribution to the history of magic and religion in its own right, while together they demonstrate how debates over the topic have evolved over time, providing invaluable intellectual, historical, and socio-political context for readers approaching the subject for the first time. The essays are organised around five key themes and areas of controversy. Part One tackles superstition; Part Two, the tension between miracles and magic; Part Three, ghosts and apparitions; Part Four, witchcraft and witch trials; and Part Five, the gradual disintegration of the 'magical universe' in the face of scientific, religious and practical opposition. Each part is prefaced by an introduction that provides an outline of the historiography and engages with recent scholarship and debate, setting the context for the essays that follow and providing a foundation for further study. This collection is an invaluable toolkit for students of early modern Europe, providing both a focused overview and a springboard for broader thinking about the underlying continuities and discontinuities that make the study of magic and superstition a perennially fascinating topic.
Witchcraft and Masculinities in Early Modern Europe
Title | Witchcraft and Masculinities in Early Modern Europe PDF eBook |
Author | A. Rowlands |
Publisher | Springer |
Pages | 271 |
Release | 2009-10-22 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0230248373 |
Men – as accused witches, witch-hunters, werewolves and the demonically possessed – are the focus of analysis in this collection of essays by leading scholars of early modern European witchcraft. The gendering of witch persecution and witchcraft belief is explored through original case-studies from England, Scotland, Italy, Germany and France.
The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America
Title | The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America PDF eBook |
Author | Brian P. Levack |
Publisher | |
Pages | 645 |
Release | 2013-03-28 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0199578168 |
A collection of essays from leading scholars in the field that collectively study the rise and fall of witchcraft prosecutions in the various kingdoms and territories of Europe and in English, Spanish, and Portuguese colonies in the Americas.
Everyday Magic in Early Modern Europe
Title | Everyday Magic in Early Modern Europe PDF eBook |
Author | Kathryn A. Edwards |
Publisher | Routledge |
Pages | 207 |
Release | 2016-03-09 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1317138333 |
While pre-modern Europe is often seen as having an 'enchanted' or 'magical' worldview, the full implications of such labels remain inconsistently explored. Witchcraft, demonology, and debates over pious practices have provided the main avenues for treating those themes, but integrating them with other activities and ideas seen as forming an enchanted Europe has proven to be a much more difficult task. This collection offers one method of demystifying this world of everyday magic. Integrating case studies and more theoretical responses to the magical and preternatural, the authors here demonstrate that what we think of as extraordinary was often accepted as legitimate, if unusual, occurrences or practices. In their treatment of and attitudes towards spirit-assisted treasure-hunting, magical recipes, trials for sanctity, and visits by guardian angels, early modern Europeans showed more acceptance of and comfort with the extraordinary than modern scholars frequently acknowledge. Even witchcraft could be more pervasive and less threatening than many modern interpretations suggest. Magic was both mundane and mysterious in early modern Europe, and the witches who practiced it could in many ways be quite ordinary members of their communities. The vivid cases described in this volume should make the reader question how to distinguish the ordinary and extraordinary and the extent to which those terms need to be redefined for an early modern context. They should also make more immediate a world in which magic was an everyday occurrence.
Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, Volume 4
Title | Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, Volume 4 PDF eBook |
Author | Stuart Clark |
Publisher | A&C Black |
Pages | 209 |
Release | 2002-01-01 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0485890046 |
The fifteenth to eighteenth centuries was a period of witchcraft prosecutions throughout Europe and modern scholars have now devoted a huge amount of research to these episodes. This volume will attempt to bring this work together by summarising the history of the trials in a new way - according to the types of legal systems involved. Other topics covered will be the continued practical use made of magic, the elaboration of demonological theories about witchcraft and magic, and the further development of scientific interests in natural magic through the 'Neoplatonic' and 'Hermetic' period.Amongst the topics included here are Superstition and Belief in high and popular culture, the place of Medicine, Witchcraft survivals in art and literature, and the survival of Persecution.>