The Occult in Early Modern Europe: A Documentary History

By: Maxwell-Stuart, P. G.

Book Overview

Witchcraft and the occult sciences are areas which have benefited enormously from the spread of more sophisticated cultural studies in recent years. The old debate as to whether or not witches were really believed to exist has collapsed in the face of the overwhelming bodies of evidence suggesting a genuine and widespread acceptance of the occult in a notionally Christian Europe.
This excellent and wide-ranging documentary anthology shows the genuinely pan-European nature of the phenomenon, its spread through all classes and its importance in people's thinking about the natural world. It covers magic, witchcraft, astrology, alchemy and other related occult themes and presents them, not as disparate elements of folkloric belief and intellectual aberrations, but as parts of a coherent, intellectually rigorous and scientifically challenging world-view, consistently argued in accordance with its given basic principles. This collection is drawn from a very wide range of authors from the early modern period and includes many newly translated documents which appear in English here for the first time.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0333688147
• ISBN13: 9780333688144
• Release Date: February 1999
• Publisher: Red Globe Press
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.99 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

The Occult in Early Modern Europe

An assembly of texts from authors whose occult writings reverberate to this very day. The selection is diverse and sufficiently deep to serve as a general introduction to esotericism in early modern Europe. Moreover, it is an important collection of primary source material. Overall, this should prove an invaluable sourcebook for readers interested in this field of study.

Insight

PG Maxwell Stuart offers a variety of texts concerning the occult that were heretofore unavailable in an English translation. Texts are grouped into categorial chapters and translated into concise modern English. Includes works by authors such as Martin Luther, Newton and Nicodemus.