Get Free Shipping on orders over $0
The Witchcraft Sourcebook : Second Edition - Brian P. Levack

The Witchcraft Sourcebook

Second Edition

By: Brian P. Levack (Editor)

Hardcover | 8 June 2015 | Edition Number 2

At a Glance

Hardcover


RRP $347.00

$298.75

14%OFF

or 4 interest-free payments of $74.69 with

 or 

Ships in 3 to 5 business days

The Witchcraft Sourcebook, now in its second edition, is a fascinating collection of documents that illustrates the development of ideas about witchcraft from ancient times to the eighteenth century. Many of the sources come from the period between 1400 and 1750, when more than 100,000 people - most of them women - were prosecuted for witchcraft in Europe and colonial America. During these years the prominent stereotype of the witch as an evil magician and servant of Satan emerged. Catholics and Protestants alike feared that the Devil and his human confederates were destroying Christian society.

Including trial records, demonological treatises and sermons, literary texts, narratives of demonic possession, and artistic depiction of witches, the documents reveal how contemporaries from various periods have perceived alleged witches and their activities. Brian P. Levack shows how notions of witchcraft have changed over time and considers the connection between gender and witchcraft and the nature of the witch's perceived power. This second edition includes an extended section on the witch trials in England, Scotland and New England, fully revised and updated introductions to the sources to include the latest scholarship and a short bibliography at the end of each introduction to guide students in their further reading.

The Sourcebook provides students of the history of witchcraft with a broad range of sources, many of which have been translated into English for the first time, with commentary and background by one of the leading scholars in the field.

Industry Reviews

"To understand the history of witchcraft properly one has to read the original sources, and for this pursuit Brian Levack has produced the very best collection on the market. Wide-ranging and judiciously chosen, this is a volume that seasoned scholars and novice students alike will find fascinating and enlightening."

Malcolm Gaskill, University of East Anglia, UK

"This is a balanced and highly readable compilation of sources on witchcraft and the witch-hunts. The book is balanced in its inclusion of some classical and medieval antecedents, balanced in the use of various forms of source material (from demonological treatises, to sermons, to legal documents, to trial excerpts), and balanced in the geographical coverage of the topic. Readers also will appreciate the extensive descriptions and introductory notes that Levack provides to contextualize and nuance the material."

Edwin Bezzina, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada

"The Witchcraft Sourcebook is an exceptional resource for understanding and teaching the history of the European witch-hunts, and a superb introduction for anyone who wants to encounter this topic directly through the voices of early modern people. New continental European and anglophone trial records enhance this edition, and Brian Levack's introductory texts continue to provide a lucid explanatory framework by one of the world's leading scholars of the witch-hunts."

Jennifer Spinks, University of Manchester, UK

"The Witchcraft Sourcebook provides both a means of entry and an impressive supporting structure to researchers interested in the development of ideas on witchcraft in Europe, up to the eighteenth century."

Ross MacFarlane, Wellcome Library, London, UK


"To understand the history of witchcraft properly one has to read the original sources, and for this pursuit Brian Levack has produced the very best collection on the market. Wide-ranging and judiciously chosen, this is a volume that seasoned scholars and novice students alike will find fascinating and enlightening."

Malcolm Gaskill, University of East Anglia, UK

"This is a balanced and highly readable compilation of sources on witchcraft and the witch-hunts. The book is balanced in its inclusion of some classical and medieval antecedents, balanced in the use of various forms of source material (from demonological treatises, to sermons, to legal documents, to trial excerpts), and balanced in the geographical coverage of the topic. Readers also will appreciate the extensive descriptions and introductory notes that Levack provides to contextualize and nuance the material."

Edwin Bezzina, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada

"The Witchcraft Sourcebook is an exceptional resource for understanding and teaching the history of the European witch-hunts, and a superb introduction for anyone who wants to encounter this topic directly through the voices of early modern people. New continental European and anglophone trial records enhance this edition, and Brian Levack's introductory texts continue to provide a lucid explanatory framework by one of the world's leading scholars of the witch-hunts."

Jennifer Spinks, University of Manchester, UK

Other Editions and Formats

Paperback

Published: 15th June 2015

In Stock and Ships next day

More in General & World History

Plunder - Max Hastings

Paperback

RRP $39.99

$31.75

21%
OFF
The Most Interesting People You've Never Heard Of - Riley Knight
Proto : How One Ancient Language Went Global - Laura Spinney

RRP $24.99

$21.75

13%
OFF
All Roads Lead to Rome : Why we think of the Roman Empire daily - Rhiannon Garth Jones
The Rape of Nanking : The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II - Iris Chang
1942 : The Crux of War - Jonathan Parshall

$71.75

The Journals of Captain Cook : Penguin Classics - James Cook

RRP $27.99

$23.75

15%
OFF
The Anarchy : The Relentless Rise of the East India Company - William Dalrymple
The Happiest Man on Earth - Eddie Jaku

RRP $32.99

$26.99

18%
OFF
The Dawn of Everything : A New History of Humanity - David Graeber
Colditz : Prisoners of the Castle - Ben Macintyre

RRP $26.99

$22.75

16%
OFF
Talking Classics : THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER - Professor Mary Beard
Surveying the Wild Abyss : Unravelling Settler Memory - Barry Corr