popular magic, religious zealotry, and reason of state in early modern Europe
Edición de la obra Witchcraft Persecutions in Bavaria
| Autor | Wolfgang Behringer |
|---|---|
| Editorial | Cambridge University Press |
| Fecha de publicación | 1997 |
| Lugar | Cambridge, [Cambridgeshire], New York |
| Idioma | inglés |
| Páginas | 476 |
| ISBN-10 | 0521482585 |
| OCLC | 504159854, 35593572 |
| LCCN | 96043846 |
| Serie | Past and present publications |
| Número de Cutter |
B421w |
This is a major, groundbreaking study by a leading scholar in the field of continental witchcraft studies. Based on an intensive search through central and local legal records for south-eastern Germany, an area extending well beyond but including present-day Bavaria, the author has compiled a thorough overview of all known prosecutions for witchcraft in the period 1300-1800. He shows conclusively that witch-hunting was not a constant or uniform phenomenon, and that three-quarters of all known executions for witchcraft were concentrated in the years 1586-1630, years of particular dearth and famine. The book investigates the social and political implications of witchcraft, and how the mechanisms of persecution served as a rallying cry for partisan factionalism at court. The author also explores the mentalities behind witch-hunting, emphasizing the complex religious debates between believers and sceptics, and Catholics and Protestants.