Contributor
Levack, Brian P.
Imprint:Oxford : Oxford University Press, c2013.
Descriptionxiv, 630 p. ; 25 cm.
Note:Introduction / Brian P. Levack -- PART I: WITCH BELIEFS. Magic and its hazards in the late medieval west / Richard Kieckhefer ; Fifteenth-century witch beliefs / Hans Peter Broedel ; Popular witch beliefs and magical practices / Edward Bever ; Demonologies / Gerhild Scholz Williams ; Sabbath stories: towards a new history of witches' assemblies / Willim de Blecourt ; The Sceptical tradition / Walter Stephens / Witchcraft in early modern literature / Diane Purkiss ; Images of witchcraft in early modern Europe / Charles Zika -- PART II: WITCHCRAFT PROSECUTIONS. The First wave of trials for diabolical witchcraft / Richard Kieckhefer ; The German witch trials / Thomas Robisheaux ; Witchcraft and the local communities: the Rhine-Moselle region / Robin Briggs ; Witchcraft trials in France / William Monter ; Witchraft and wealth: the case of the Netherlands / Hans de Waardt ; Witchcraft prosecutions in Italy / Tamar Herzig ; Witchcraft in Iberia / William Monter ; Witchcraft trials in England / Malcolm Gaskill ; Witchcraft in Scotland / Julian Goodare ; Witchcraft in Poland: milk and malefice / Michael Ostling ; Witch-hunting in early modern Hungary / Ildiko Sz. Dristof ; Witchcraft trials in Russia: history and historiography / Valerie Kivelson ; Witchcraft criminality and witchcraf research in the Nordic countries / Rune Blix Hagen ; Witchcraft in British America / Richard Godbeer ;tMerging magical traditions: sorcery and witchcraft in Spanish and Portuguese America / Iris Gareis ; The Decline and end of witchcraft prosecutions / Brian P. Levack -- PART III: THEMES OF WITCHCRAFT RESEARCH. Witchcraft and gender in early modern Europe / Alison Rowlands ; Witchcraft and the law / Brian P. Levack ; Sixteenth-century religious reform and the witch-hunts / Gary K. Waite ; On the neuropsychological origins of witchcraft cognition: the geographic and economic variable / Oscar Di Simplicio ; Politics, state-building, and witch-hunting / Johannes Dillinger ; Science and witchcraft / Peter Elmer ; Medicine and witchcraft / Peter Elmer ; Demonic possession, exorcism, and witchcraft / Sarah Ferber.
Bibliography Note:Includes bibliographical references and index.
Note:The essays in this handbook, written by leading scholars working in the rapidly developing field of witchcraft studies, explore the historical literature regarding witch beliefs and witch trials in Europe and colonial America between the early fifteenth and early eighteenth centuries. During these years witches were thought to be evil people who used magical powers to inflict physical harm or misfortune on their neighbors. Witches were also believed to have made pacts with the devil and sometimes to have worshipped him at nocturnal assemblies known as sabbaths. These beliefs provided the baasis for defining witchcraft as a secular and ecclesesiastical crime and prosecuting tens of thousands of women and men for this offence. The trials resulted in as many as fifthy thousand executions. These essays study the rise and fall of witch prosecutions in the various kingdoms and territories of Europe and in English, Spanish and Portugese colonies in the Americas.
