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Libra Esoterica

Witchcraft continued: Popular magic in modern Europe

by Owen Davies & Willem De Blécourt

  • First published:
  • 21st century
  • Language: English
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Description

Description from Directory of Open Access Books (opens in a new tab)

Witchcraft continued provides an important collection of essays on the nature and understanding of witchcraft and magic in European society over the last two centuries. It innovatively brings together the interests of historians in nineteenth-century witchcraft and the twentieth-century fieldwork of anthropologists and sociologists on the continued relevance of witch beliefs. The book covers England, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Finland, Transylvania and Northern Ireland. It examines the experience of and attitudes towards witchcraft from both above and below. They demonstrate the widespread fear of witches amongst the masses during the nineteenth century, and the continued but more restricted relevance of witchcraft in the twentieth century. While the educated classes generally denounced witch-believers as either superstitious, foolish or both, secular and religious authorities still had to find strategies of dealing with the demands of those who believed themselves the victims of witchcraft. Moreover the rise of the folklore movement and the growth of anthropology as an academic discipline over the period provided a huge body of evidence on continuing beliefs that many had consigned to the past. This book will be essential reading for those interested in the continued importance of witchcraft and magic in the modern era. More generally it will appeal to those with a lively interest in the cultural history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Provenance

Why this book is in the catalog

Included because retained bibliographic metadata links this work to Astrology, Divination and oracles, Occultism and esotericism, Ritual magic and grimoires, and Witchcraft and folk magic.

  • Occultism and esotericism

    Retained metadata contains “occult” in the subject metadata and “supernatural” in the subject metadata.

    • “occult”· in subject
    • “supernatural”· in subject
  • Ritual magic and grimoires

    Controlled discovery queries from oapen matched “ritual magic”. Retained metadata contains “Magic” in the title, “Magic” in the description, “Magic” in the subject metadata, and 1 additional metadata match(es).

    • “ritual magic”· via OAPEN Library
    • “Magic”· in title
    • “Magic”· in description
    • “Magic”· in subject
    • “Magic”· in edition title
  • Witchcraft and folk magic

    Controlled discovery queries from doab, oapen, and openalex matched “witchcraft”. Retained metadata contains “Witchcraft” in the title, “Witchcraft” in the description, “witches” in the description, and 3 additional metadata match(es).

    • “witchcraft”· via Directory of Open Access Books
    • “witchcraft”· via OAPEN Library
    • “witchcraft”· via OpenAlex
    • “Witchcraft”· in title
    • “Witchcraft”· in description
    • “witches”· in description
  • Astrology

    Retained metadata contains “Astrology” in the subject metadata.

    • “Astrology”· in subject
  • Divination and oracles

    Retained metadata contains “Divination” in the subject metadata.

    • “Divination”· in subject

Membership records how this book met the catalog’s discovery criteria — relevance to a tradition, not a judgment of the book’s claims.

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Editions

One edition cataloged here.

Directory of Open Access Books edition

2004Manchester University Press; Manchester University Press eBooks; Winchester University PressEnglish
  • 9780719066580
Open access

Subjects

29 subject headings

Identifiers & provenance

How this record was assembled, and the authority identifiers it carries.

Catalog id
doab:20.500.12854/35341
Edition coverage
Multi source partial
Retrieved