Witchcraft in Europe, 400-1700: A Documentary History (Middle Ages Series) (Paperback)

by Alan Charles Kors (Editor), Edward Peters (Editor) "THE GREEK, LATIN, AND HEBREW ideas and terms designating various kinds of what may generally be called magic, whether practiced by men or women, reach..." (more)
Key Phrases: diabolical sorcery, diabolical sorcerers, appointed fast days, New York, Canon Episcopi, Middle Ages (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Revisions have made this anthology stronger and even more essential."--Choice

Praise for the first edition: "Comprehensive, original, scholarly, philosophically searching and meticulously prepared…The volume, copiously illustrated, reveals the shocking impact of the belief in witches on Europe's Middle Ages, and examines the struggles of thinkers…to confront the phenomenon on rational terms. This is a major work in the genre."--Publishers Weekly

Praise for the first edition: "Anyone prepared to come to grips with man's most bloody assault on his domestic enemy should read with care this learned, handsome--and sickening book."--John F. Benton "An indispensable source book."--Choice

Product Description

The highly-acclaimed first edition of this book chronicled the rise and fall of witchcraft in Europe between the twelfth and the end of the seventeenth centuries. Now greatly expanded, the classic anthology of contemporary texts reexamines the phenomenon of witchcraft, taking into account the remarkable scholarship since the book's publication almost thirty years ago.

Spanning the period from 400 to 1700, the second edition of Witchcraft in Europe assembles nearly twice as many primary documents as the first, many newly translated, along with new illustrations that trace the development of witch-beliefs from late Mediterranean antiquity through the Enlightenment. Trial records, inquisitors' reports, eyewitness statements, and witches' confessions, along with striking contemporary illustrations depicting the career of the Devil and his works, testify to the hundreds of years of terror that enslaved an entire continent.

Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, Thomas Hobbes, and other thinkers are quoted at length in order to determine the intellectual, perceptual, and legal processes by which "folklore" was transformed into systematic demonology and persecution. Together with explanatory notes, introductory essays--which have been revised to reflect current research--and a new bibliography, the documents gathered in Witchcraft in Europe vividly illumine the dark side of the European mind.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press; 2nd edition (November 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812217519
• ISBN-13: 978-0812217513
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #294,427 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More source documents than you can shake a stick at!, January 31, 2002

By	"ethelberga" (Kent, WA USA) - See all my reviews

I thought nothing could surpass my previous favorite reference book -- the first edition of Kors and Peters' tremendous work. It should be no surprise, then, that it is this, the second edition, that now occupies the seat of honor in my collection.

This collection of source documents is, in my opinion, the best available for the study of European witchcraft persecutions. The documents included are specifically edited to highlight relevant sections. I find this extremely valuable; I'm not always up to searching through the writings of Acquinas to find a particular passage.

This expanded, second edition provides even more of what I've grown to rely upon: a coherent collection of source documents tracing the development of witchcraft in medieval psychology, through the "witchcraze" in early modern Europe, and concluding with the skepticism developing in the 17th Century.

If I'm ever stranded on a desert island, I hope I remembered to bring this book with me.