Beyond the Witch Trials: Witchcraft and Magic in Enlightenment EuropeOwen Davies, Willem De Blécourt Beyond the witch trials provides an important collection of essays on the nature of witchcraft and magic in European society during the Enlightenment. The book is innovative not only because it pushes forward the study of witchcraft into the eighteenth century, but because it provides the reader with a challenging variety of different approaches and sources of information. The essays, which cover England, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Germany, Scotland, Finland and Sweden, examine the experience of and attitudes towards witchcraft from both above and below. While they demonstrate the continued widespread fear of witches amongst the masses, they also provide a corrective to the notion that intellectual society lost interest in the question of witchcraft. While witchcraft prosecutions were comparatively rare by the mid-eighteenth century, the intellectual debate did no disappear; it either became more private or refocused on such issues as possession. The contributors come from different academic disciplines, and by borrowing from literary theory, archaeology and folklore they move beyond the usual historical perspectives and sources. They emphasise the importance of studying such themes as the aftermath of witch trials, the continued role of cunning-folk in society, and the nature of the witchcraft discourse in different social contexts. This book will be essential reading for those interested in the decline of the European witch trials and the continued importance of witchcraft and magic during the Enlightenment. More generally it will appeal to those with a lively interest in the cultural history of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This is the first of a two-volume set of books looking at the phenomenon of witchcraft, magic and the occult in Europe since the seventeenth century. |
Contents
List of contributors page | 1 |
Raisa Maria Toivo | 9 |
magic witchcraft and Church | 26 |
Feijoo versus the falsely | 45 |
Responses to witchcraft in late seventeenth | 61 |
Witchcraft and magic in eighteenthcentury Scotland | 81 |
a male strategy SoiliMaria Olli | 100 |
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Common terms and phrases
affair Agata appeared archaeological authorities belief bewitched Blécourt bottles Bristol Capua charm church concealed shoes concerned court crime culture cunning-folk Dalarna Demoniacos demons denouncer denunciation detto Devil Devil's pact diabolic discourse Drenthe dried cats Durbin Dyer Dyer's diary Early Modern eighteenth century elite Enlightenment Erik Ahlgren Europe evidence evil example February Feijoo Finland Giles grimoires Gud eller natur guilders hierarchy Hilberding Hilberding's horse skulls involved Justitierevisionens Arkiv kirk Linderholm London mentioned Meppel Merrifield minister neighbours Nenonen Owen Davies parish period person popular possessed practice presbytery Preuver printed prosecutions published RA Stockholm Rättvik recorded religious reported ritual Satan sceptical Scotland seventeenth century social society Sörlin spirit Stockholm story Stuart Clark supernatural superstition Sweden Swedish Ulvila Uppsala Uppsala University Library Utslagshandlingar Varken Gud Vehmaa Vehmaa ja Ala-Satakunta vidskepelse village wife Willem witch doctor witch trials witch-bottles witch-hunt witchcraft and magic woman women
References to this book
The Witch Hunts: A History of the Witch Persecutions in Europe and North America Robert W. Thurston No preview available - 2007 |