Witchcraft in Europe and the New World, 1400-1800

The aim of the text is to provide students with insight into the way in which people in the early modern period framed their ideas about the Creator and the created universe in terms of magic. This mental framework informed and moulded theology, philosophy, the law, medicine, and the sciences, as well as offering practical help with the problems of everyday life. The study of witchcraft, (which was simply a particular manifestation of this mental world) therefore helps to illustrate many of the key concepts which governed both defenders and, later, opponents of the magical Zeitgeist.