Superstition and Magic in Early Modern Europe: A Reader

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 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).

Section 1: Religion and Superstition in Early Modern Europe / Section 2: Miracle and Magic / Section 3: Ghosts and Apparitions / Section 4: Witchcraft / Section 5: The Disenchantment of the World.