HIST 89 Witchcraft and Magic in the Early Modern World: Finding Books and Articles
Databases
- Academic Search PremierFind information on academic areas of business, social sciences, humanities, general academic, general science, education and multi-cultural topics; resource provides access to major popular and scholarly journals with many full-text articles.
- ATLA Religion DatabaseA major index to journal articles, book reviews, and essay collections in the field of religion. The ATLA Religion Database covers over 1,400 journals, including over 600 being currently indexed, and nearly 16,000 collections of essays.
The equivalent print indexes are- Religion Index One: periodicals, 1949-present;
- Religion Index Two: multi-author works, 1960-present;
- Research in Ministry, 1981-1996;
- Index to Book Reviews in Religion, 1949-present;
- and Methodist Reviews Index, 1818-1985.
- Gale Primary SourcesGale Primary Sources is a search engine for Gale's historical digital collections of primary materials. You can search all at once or choose selectively. Consult the database to see the full-text collections available.
- Historical AbstractsCovers the history of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada) and indexes nearly 2,300 journals in over 40 languages.
Note: Limited to 6 users at a time. - Oxford Bibliographies OnlineProvides sophisticated online recommendations to the core scholarship on a subject as determined by experts in the field. Each module constitutes a convenient and comprehensive introduction to the essential body of literature that has shaped research on a topic. At the click of a mouse, you therefore have 24/7 access to expert recommendations that have been rigorously peer-reviewed and vetted to ensure scholarly accuracy and objectivity.
Each OBO subject database allows you to identify the core authors, works, ideas, and debates that have shaped the scholarly conversation so you can find the key literature. All the bibliographic essays have been peer-reviewed, and the specific entries are linked to full-text content available through the web or the UNC Library. The "My OBO" feature also allows you to create a personalized list of citations. - Women's Studies InternationalInterdisciplinary, international database covering the core literature of the field of women's and gender studies with links to full text.
Background Sources
The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America by
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. Duringthese years witches were thought to be evil people who used magical power to inflict physical harm or misfortune on their neighbours.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 basis for defining witchcraft as a secular and ecclesiastical crime and prosecuting tens of thousands of women and men for thisoffence. The trials resulted in as many as fifty thousand executions.These essays 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. They also relate these prosecutions to the Catholic and Protestant reformations, the introduction of new forms ofcriminal procedure, medical and scientific thought, the process of state-building, profound social and economic change, early modern patterns of gender relations, and the wave of demonic possessions that occurred in Europe at the same time.The essays survey the current state of knowledge in the field, explore the academic controversies that have arisen regarding witch beliefs and witch trials, propose new ways of studying the subject, and identify areas for future research.
ISBN: 9780199578160Publication Date: 2013-05-19
Encyclopedia of Witchcraft by
This text covers European witch hunting in the early modern era (1450-1750) exploring significant people, places, beliefs, and events. It includes trials, folklore and beliefs, magical practices and deities, and influential texts. It also covers the ancient Near East and classical antiquity.
ISBN: 1851095128Publication Date: 2006-01-18
The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft by
Long the stuff of legend, witches and witchcraft have been associated with every variety of evil and mischief. This encyclopedia aims to dispel such notions, with a comprehensive guide to witchcraft throughout history and around the world.
ISBN: 081603849XPublication Date: 1999-10-01
Finding books
Start with a keyword search in the catalog. Once you have located a relevant item, you can look at the Library of Congress Subject Headings within the full record tab and follow those links to find related books.
You can also refine your search by using the features on the left side of the screen.
- Keyword: witchcraft and Europe
- Associated subjects: witchcraft--Europe
- Associated subjects: magic--Europe
- Keyword: gender and religion
- Associated subjects: magic--religious aspects
- Associated subjects: witchcraft--history
Useful Books
Beyond the Witch Trials by
Beyond the Witch Trials is an important volume on the nature of witchcraft and magic in European society during the Enlightenment. This innovative book provides the reader with a challenging variety of approaches and sources of information, as well as advancing the study of witchcraft into the eighteenth century.The essays cover England, The Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Germany, Scotland, Finland and Sweden, and examine the experience of and attitudes towards witchcraft in those countries. The contributors come from different academic disciplines and move beyond the usual historical perspectives and sources.They emphasize 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.
ISBN: 0719066603Publication Date: 2004-11-27
The Realities of Witchcraft and Popular Magic in Early Modern Europe by
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.
ISBN: 9781403997814Publication Date: 2008-06-11
Werewolves, Witches, and Wandering Spirits by
Bringing together scholars from Europe, America, and Australia, this volume explores the more fantastic elements of popular religious belief: ghosts, werewolves, spiritualism, animism, and of course, witchcraft. These traditional religious beliefs and practices are frequently treated as marginal in more synthetic studies of witchcraft and popular religion, yet Protestants and Catholics alike saw ghosts, imps, werewolves, and other supernatural entities as populating their world. Embedded within notarial and trial records are accounts that reveal the integration of folkloric and theological elements in early modern spirituality. Drawing from extensive archival research, the contributors argue for the integration of such beliefs into our understanding of late medieval and early modern Europe.
ISBN: 1931112096Publication Date: 2002-11-01
The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe by
Between 1450 and 1750 thousands of people, most of them women, were accused, prosecuted and executed for the crime of witchcraft. The witch-hunt was not a single event; it comprised thousands of individual prosecutions, each shaped by the religious and social dimensions of the particular area as well as political and legal factors. Brian Levack sorts through the proliferation of theories to provide a coherent introduction to the subject, as well as contributing to the scholarly debate. The book: Examines why witchcraft prosecutions took place, how many trials and victims there were, and why witch-hunting eventually came to an end. Explores the beliefs of both educated and illiterate people regarding witchcraft. Uses regional and local studies to give a more detailed analysis of the chronological and geographical distribution of witch-trials. Emphasises the legal context of witchcraft prosecutions. Illuminates the social, economic and political history of early modern Europe, and in particular the position of women within it. In this fully updated third edition of his exceptional study, Levack incorporates the vast amount of literature that has emerged since the last edition. He substantially extends his consideration of the decline of the witch-hunt and goes further in his exploration of witch-hunting after the trials, especially in contemporary Africa. New illustrations vividly depict beliefs about witchcraft in early modern Europe.
ISBN: 0582419018Publication Date: 2006-04-13
Witchcraft and Magic in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Europe by
The figure of the witch still has the ability to exert a powerful fascination on the modern mind. The vision of the elderly crone begging for charity at the crossroads, an object of fear and revulsion for her local community, has combined with the memory of prolonged judicial persecution and oppression to inspire contemporary movements as far removed from each other as Wiccans and women's liberation. In tackling such an emotive issue, where misogyny and violence combine with superstition and the basest of human instincts, Scarre and Callow chart a clear and refreshingly level-headed approach to the subject. Distinguishing between fact and fiction, they set the witch trials firnly back within the context of their own times and, without seeking to exonerate those responsible, demonstrate how it was possible for judiciaries and social elites to believe wholeheartedly in the reality and efficacy of witchcraft as a valid system of belief and as a dangerous threat to the fabric of society in which they lived. This new edition has been comprehensively updated to take account of the vast expansion in interest and scholarly research that has taken place in the field since the publication of the first edition. This work provides a provocative thesis for those seeking to understand the basis for the politics of persecution and a firm interpretative basis around which further exploratory research may be conducted.
ISBN: 0333920821Publication Date: 2001-06-29
Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe by
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.
ISBN: 9780521552240Publication Date: 1996-07-13
The Witchcraft Sourcebook by
This fascinating collection of documents illustrates the development of ideas about witchcraft from ancient times to the twentieth century. Many of the sources come from the period between 1400 and 1750, when more than 100,000 people - mainly women - were prosecuted for witchcraft in Europe and colonial America. Including trial records, demonological treatises and sermons, literary texts, narratives of demonic possession, and artistic depiction of witches, the documents reveal how contemporaries from various periods have perceived alleged witches and their activities. Brian P. Levack shows how notions of witchcraft have changed over time. He looks at the connection between gender and witchcraft and the nature of the witch's perceived power. ThisSourcebookprovides students of the history of witchcraft with a broad range of sources, many of which have been translated into English for the first time, with commentary and background by one of the leading scholars in the field.
ISBN: 0415195055Publication Date: 2003-12-03
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