Description
Book SynopsisThis is a major, groundbreaking study by a leading scholar in the field of continental witchcraft studies. The book includes a thorough overview of all known prosecutions for witchcraft in the period 1300â1800, and investigates in depth its social and political background.
Trade Review'… ranks alongside earlier ground-breaking works such as those of Thomas, Macfarlane or Midelfort as essential reading for all serious students of the subject'. Bob Scribner, English Historical Review
'Well-nigh definitive as a study of witchcraft prosecutions in south-east Germany between the late Middle Ages and the end of the eighteenth century, Behringer's work also throws dazzling light on the religious, cultural and socio-political background of continental witch-hunting as a whole.' Journal of Ecclesiastical History
'… a tour de force of historical research and writing …'. Journal for the Academic Study of Magic
Table of ContentsForeword; 1. Introduction; 2. Moving toward a social history of witchcraft; 3. The wave of persecutions around 1590; 4. The struggle for restraint, 1600–30; 5. Perpetuation through domestication, 1630–1775; 6. The final Catholic debate; 7. Conclusions; 8. Sources and literature.
