Defence of Witchcraft Belief
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€25.99
'Discoverie of witchcraft'
Category=NHD
Category=QRAX
Category=QRYX5
church history
Elizabethan church
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eq_history
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eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
manuscript studies
Puritanism
Reginald Scot
scribal networks
the Bible
witchcraft
Product details
- ISBN 9781526174451
- Weight: 331g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 26 Sep 2023
- Publisher: Manchester University Press
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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This is the first published edition of a fascinating manuscript on witchcraft in the collection of the British Library, written by an unknown sixteenth-century scholar. Responding to a pre-publication draft of Reginald Scot’s sceptical Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584), the treatise represents the most detailed defence of witchcraft belief to be written in the early modern period in England. It highlights in detail the scriptural and theological justifications for a belief in witches, covering ground that may well have been considered too sensitive for print publications and presenting learned arguments not found in any other contemporary English work. Consequently, it offers a unique insight into elite witchcraft belief dating from the very beginning of the English witchcraft debate. This edition, which includes a comprehensive analytical introduction, presents the treatise with modernised spelling and relevant excerpts from Scot’s book.
Eric Pudney is a Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Lund University
