What do you think?
Rate this book
Witchcraft and Magic in Europe #5
The Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, Volume 5: The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
The end of the eighteenth century saw the end of the witch trials everywhere. This volume charts the processes and reasons for the decriminalisation of witchcraft but also challenges the widespread assumption that Europe has been 'disenchanted'. For the first time surveys are given of the social role of witchcraft in European communities down to the end of the nineteenth century and of the continued importance of witchcraft and magic as topics of debate among intellectuals and other writers.
352 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1998
374 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 15, 2016
Being three essays on three different topics: how the trials ends, what forms of folk magic were practiced after the end of the trials, and the enlightenment contempt for magic and the supernatural.
The first one slowly wades through the multiplicities of different situations. The one commonality is that it was top down -- the upper classes brought it to a halt. Tended to be driven by higher standards of evidence -- quite as high as were demanded for other crimes. (In some regions this was demanded all along. The Inquisitions, for instance, insisted that they needed good evidence.) Which raised questions about spectral evidence, the claim of the victims to have seen the witch tormenting them, but given that it came from the Devil, how could they know it was true? The increase in lawyers, which helped, because the evidence was extremely vulnerable to challenges. There was a period in Scotland, over a decade, where only one accused witch was acquitted; she had hired three lawyers. Besides, you needed a corpus delicti -- you had to prove that there was witchcraft before the question of which witch was responsible arose. So people asked, could the problem have had a natural origin? Might it be fraud or hysteria? Or perhaps the storm was God's punishment for sins, not something witches conjured, or the demonic possession came straight from the Devil.
And then investigations into folkmagic. Observations about what changed. For instance, the large-scale harms of epidemics and bad weather slipped away -- they were chiefly concentrated in regions with lots of witch trials even in that period. And even moderate disasters like fires and shipwrecks fell out of the folklore, so that people talked about bewitchments and unwitching personal harm, to one's children, or pig, or cows, or ability to churn butter. (Urbanization also limited that.) And the actual practice of folk magic. Love magic, particularly in the Mediterranean area. Treasure hunting,which is the type where we know they tried to call on devils, because it was learned magic, in books. Divination magic that tried to call on saints. Places where fairy lore -- or huldre or dona -- were closely equivalent. Vampire lore was closely tied to witchcraft in Hungary. The increase in assaults and lynchings of alleged witches -- not that that had been rare when you could have trials.
Finally, the people who actually rejected all magic and all demons categorically. Their mockery of the witch trials and the irregular attacks going on. The assertions of divine Providence being better evidence of the supernatural than demonic attacks. (With some observations about its continuation in pulp literature, and the Romantic counter-attack.)
Lots of interesting stuff.
The first one slowly wades through the multiplicities of different situations. The one commonality is that it was top down -- the upper classes brought it to a halt. Tended to be driven by higher standards of evidence -- quite as high as were demanded for other crimes. (In some regions this was demanded all along. The Inquisitions, for instance, insisted that they needed good evidence.) Which raised questions about spectral evidence, the claim of the victims to have seen the witch tormenting them, but given that it came from the Devil, how could they know it was true? The increase in lawyers, which helped, because the evidence was extremely vulnerable to challenges. There was a period in Scotland, over a decade, where only one accused witch was acquitted; she had hired three lawyers. Besides, you needed a corpus delicti -- you had to prove that there was witchcraft before the question of which witch was responsible arose. So people asked, could the problem have had a natural origin? Might it be fraud or hysteria? Or perhaps the storm was God's punishment for sins, not something witches conjured, or the demonic possession came straight from the Devil.
And then investigations into folkmagic. Observations about what changed. For instance, the large-scale harms of epidemics and bad weather slipped away -- they were chiefly concentrated in regions with lots of witch trials even in that period. And even moderate disasters like fires and shipwrecks fell out of the folklore, so that people talked about bewitchments and unwitching personal harm, to one's children, or pig, or cows, or ability to churn butter. (Urbanization also limited that.) And the actual practice of folk magic. Love magic, particularly in the Mediterranean area. Treasure hunting,which is the type where we know they tried to call on devils, because it was learned magic, in books. Divination magic that tried to call on saints. Places where fairy lore -- or huldre or dona -- were closely equivalent. Vampire lore was closely tied to witchcraft in Hungary. The increase in assaults and lynchings of alleged witches -- not that that had been rare when you could have trials.
Finally, the people who actually rejected all magic and all demons categorically. Their mockery of the witch trials and the irregular attacks going on. The assertions of divine Providence being better evidence of the supernatural than demonic attacks. (With some observations about its continuation in pulp literature, and the Romantic counter-attack.)
Lots of interesting stuff.
December 3, 2014
useful; fairly dry but readable. part 1 focuses on the decline and end of witchcraft prosecutions; part 2: witchcraft after the witch-trials (region-by-region account); part 3: witchcraft and magic in enlightenment romantic and liberal thought. the focus is definitely more heavily on accusations and inquisitors than on the particulars of peasant culture and practices (in contrast to "the night battles" by carlo ginzburg.) good theories and questions in this historical account. definitely more of a research read than a lay-reader's pleasure.
couldn-t-finish
March 26, 2013Currently packed away in a box.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews