Superstition and Magic in Early M

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.

A diverse collection of the most important recent scholarship on witchcraft, magic and religion.

In recent decades research into witchcraft and magic has expanded alongside a deepening understanding of early modern popular culture and belief. The result is a much more nuanced appreciation of how such beliefs were woven into the fabric of society, and of the degree to which early modern religion, superstition and magic were intertwined. Recent research has facilitated a more detailed and comprehensive understanding of these themes, and this volume brings the key threads of each debate together in one volume, demonstrating the richness of the historiography, and the significance of superstition, magic, and popular belief in relation to our understanding of early modern popular culture.

The selected texts reflect the diversity of both early modern popular culture, and modern scholarly investigations of it. Readers will be introduced to debates over the (co)existence of religious and magical belief, the nature and conceptual challenge of superstition, the redefinition of magic and miracle in the aftermath of the Reformation, the manifestation of diverse beliefs in the supernatural, and the ever expanding controversy over witchcraft in early modern Europe.

Helen Parish is Professor of History at the University of Reading, UK. She is the author of Monks, Miracles and Magic: Reformation Representations of the Medieval Church (2005).

Part I - Superstition
Introduction
1. K. Kamerick, 'Shaping Superstition in Late Medieval England ', in Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft 3.1 (2008): 29-53
2. E. Cameron, 'For Reasoned Faith or Embattled Creed', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 8 (1998): 165-87
3. E. Peters, Material from 'The medieval Church and State on Superstition, Magic and Witchcraft', Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic (volume 1),pp.178-86, 207-217, 223-237, 238-245
Part II - Miracles and Magic
Introduction
4. H. Parish, 'Lying Histories Fayning False Miracles', Reformation and RenaissanceReview 4.2 (2002): 230-40
5. L. Daston, 'Marvellous Facts and Miraculous Evidence in Early Modern Europe', Critical Inquiry 18.1 (1991): 93-124
6. R. Kieckhefer 'The Specific Rationality of Medieval Magic', American Historical Review, 99.3 (1994): 813-36
Part III - Ghosts and Apparitions
Introduction
7. A. Walsham, 'Sermons in the Sky: Apparitions in Early Modern Europe', History Today 51.4 (2001: 56-63
8. R. Bowyer, 'The Role of the Ghost Story in Medieval Christianity' , The Folklore of Ghosts ed. H.E. Davidson, W. Russell (Folklore Society, 1981)
Part IV - Witchcraft
Introduction
9. W. Monter, 'Toads and Eucharists: The male witches of Normandy 1564-1660', French Historical Studies 20.4 (1997): 563-95
10. S. Clark 'Witchcraft and Magic in Early Modern culture' in the Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic (section on demonology)
11. E. Bever, 'Witchcraft, female aggression and power in the early modern community', Journal of Social History 35.4 (2002): 955-88
Part V - 'Disenchantment' of Europe
Introduction
12. M.D. Bailey, 'The disenchantment of magic: spells, charms and superstition in early European witchcraft literature', American Historical Review
13. B. Levack, 'Part One: The decline and end of witchcraft prosecutions', in Athlone History of witchcraft and magic volume 5
14. D.P. Walker, 'The Cessation of Miracles', in L. Merkel and A.G. Debus eds, Hermeticism and the Renaissance, (Folger / AUP, 1988), pp.111-124