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History 215: Magic and Witchcraft in Pre-Modern Europe


Spring 2012 - Prof. Barnes

Questions? Contact Sara Swanson (704-894-2157).

  • Drop-In Consultation Hours:
    • Monday, 3:00 - 5:00 pm
    • Wednesday, 7:00 - 8:00 pm
    • Thursday, 1:00 - 3:00 pm
  • Also available by appointment.

Finding Primary Sources

Primary sources related to witchcraft in pre-modern Europe can be found using library catalogs, digital collections (both subscription-based and on the Web), and other resources, including reprints of original documents.

Library Catalogs

Davidson Library WorldCat contains information about primary source materials owned by Davidson and in libraries around the world.  You may also search in WorldCat Classic for primary source materials. If Davidson does not have a copy of what you need, use Interlibrary Loan to request it.

Note:  Rare and archival materials cannot be borrowed on interlibrary loan.  You can sometimes locate microfilm or microfiche copies of these documents in WorldCat Classic; try doing an advanced search, enter your keywords or subject terms, and then apply a “subtype limit,” choosing “Microform” as the format.

To locate primary sources in a library catalog, do a keyword search and add one or more of the following words:

  • sources
  • correspondence
  • diaries
  • personal narratives

Or, go to the Advanced Search page and try a subject search using one of the following subject headings:

  • Magic history sources
  • Witchcraft early works to 1800
  • Witchcraft history sources


Digital Collections

  • 17th & 18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers
    (c. 1603-1800) Contains digital facsimiles of approximately 1,270 seventeenth and eighteenth-century English newspapers from the British Library’s Burney Collection; includes many London papers as well as some English provincial, Scottish, Irish, and colonial North American papers.  The full text of these newspapers, including all articles, advertisements, and other contents, is keyword-searchable.

  • Cornell University Library Witchcraft Collection
    (1400-1850) Contains works on canon law, the Inquisition, demonology, torture, trial testimony, and narratives.
    Note:  This online collection is only a portion of Cornell’s Witchcraft Collection.  Davidson has a copy of the Catalogue of the Witchcraft Collection in Cornell University Library (Millwood, NY:  KTO Press, 1977), which is shelved in Reference at call number R 016.13 C814c.

  • Early English Books Online (EEBO)
    (1475-1700) Includes complete, digitized images of over 125,000 books, pamphlets, broadsides, and other materials published in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and British North America from the fifteenth through the seventeenth centuries.
    Note:  Includes only a small number of periodicals.
    To print more than a citation or one page of a document, you need to add a record to your marked list, then click on the “Marked List” button at the top of the page.  Click on “Download document image sets in PDF format.”  Then choose “Download entire document.”  Once the document is downloaded, you can print out a range of pages or the entire document using the print function in Adobe Acrobat Reader.


  • Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)
    (1701-1800) Contains the full text of 185,000 books, pamphlets, almanacs, advertisements, songs, and other materials published in Great Britain and British North America during the eighteenth century; provides digital facsimiles of each of these works.
    Note:  To print a document, click on the “Print/View PDF” button on the left side of the page.  Then, choose the third option:  “View/print up to 50 pages in PDF format.”  You must enter a page range for this option to work.

  • The Labyrinth:  Resources for Medieval Studies
    From Georgetown University. Provides links to primary and secondary sources.

  • The Making of Modern Law: Trials, 1620-1926
    (1600-1926) Contains digital facsimiles of over 10,000 titles, including trial transcripts, official records of proceedings, and popular printed accounts of U.S. and U.K. trials. Drawn from the collections of the Harvard, Yale, and Association of the Bar of the City of New York libraries.

  • Proceedings of the Old Bailey London, 1674 to 1834
    (1674-1834) Provides the full text of the proceedings of over 197,000 trials along with original page images and background information on trial procedures, verdicts, and the types of crimes tried.  The Old Bailey was the central criminal court for the City of London and the County of Middlesex.

  • Witchcraft in Europe and America
    (1500-1930) A collection from Archives Unbound. Contains over 260,000 primary source documents relatedto witchcraft in Europe and America, including both eyewitness accounts and court records of witch trials.

  • Women Writers Online
    Contains the full text of over 200 works written by women in the period 1400-1850.

Note: Many libraries and archives are in the process of scanning materials and posting them on the Web. These can be excellent materials. As always, be cautious about using materials that you find on the "Open Web"; remember to evaluate everything you find!


Other Resources

  • ARTstor
    A collection of over 900,000 images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, and the social sciences; covers a wide range of cultures and time periods.  Also includes tools to manipulate and analyze the images.

  • English Witchcraft, 1560-1736.  Ed. James Sharpe and Richard M. Golden.  6 vols.  London:  Pickering & Chatto, 2003.
    Little Library Stacks BF1581 .E54 2003

  • Materials Toward a History of Witchcraft.  Henry Charles Lea.  Philadelphia, PA:  Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1939.  3 vols.  New York:  AMS Press, 1986.
    Little Library Stacks 133.4 L433m

  • Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History.  Philadelphia, PA:  Univ. of Pennsylvania Dept. of History, 1897-1907.  6 vols.  New York:  AMS Press, 1971
    Little Library Stacks 940 P77t

  • Witchcraft in Europe, 400-1700:  A Documentary History.  Ed. Alan Charles Kors and Edward Peters.  2nd ed.  Philadelphia, PA:  Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2001.
    Little Library Stacks BF1566 .W739 2001

  • The Witchcraft Sourcebook.  Ed. Brian P. Levack.  New York:  Routledge, 2004.
    Little Library Stacks BF1566 .W58 2004


Finding Secondary Sources

Books

Use library catalogs to find books, videos, government documents, journals, magazines, and newspapers.  Davidson Library WorldCat contains information about materials owned by Davidson and in libraries around the world.  You may also search in WorldCat Classic for secondary source materials.If Davidson does not have a copy of what you need, use Interlibrary Loan to request it.

When searching for books and other materials in a catalog, try searching by keyword, author, or title.  You may also search by Library of Congress subject headings.  To locate appropriate subject headings, do a keyword search and then browse records.  Helpful subject headings include:

  • Demonology
  • Magic history
  • Superstition
  • Trials witchcraft [name of country]
  • Witchcraft
  • Witchcraft early works to 1800
  • Witchcraft [name of country] history
  • Witchcraft Europe history
  • Witches

For a list of helpful reference materials held by the Davidson College Library, click here.


Articles

Core Resources

  • Historical Abstracts
    (1450 to present [historical time period covered]; 1954 to present [publication date of articles and books indexed]) Indexes scholarly articles, review of scholarly books, and doctoral dissertations on world history, excluding the history of the U.S. and Canada.
    Search Syntax
    Truncation:  use an asterisk *.
    Phrase Searching:  use double quotation marks “ ”.
    Wildcard:  use a question mark ?.
    Time Period Searches:  search by decade or century only.
    To search for a decade, use the format xxxxD (example:  1940D).
    To search for a range of decades, use the format xxxxD xxxxD or the format xxxxD OR xxxxD.
    Note:  For more than five decades, search by century (see below).
    To search for a century, use the format xxxxH (example:  1900H).
    To search for a range of centuries, use the format xxxxH xxxxH.


  • ITER:  Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance
    (400-1700 [historical time period covered]; 1842 to present [publication date of articles and books indexed]) An interdisciplinry database containing citations to journal articles, essays, and book related to the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
    Search Syntax
    Truncation:  use a dollar sign $.
    Phrase Searching:  use double quotation marks “ ”.
    Wildcard:  use a question mark ?.


  • International Medieval Bibliography
    Reference Z6203 .I63
    (400-1500 [historical time period covered]; 1967 to present [publication dates of articles indexed] Indexes scholarly articles, essays, and conference papers on a wide range of topics related to the Middle Ages in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.  International in scope.

Other Resources

  • ATLA Religion Database
    (1949 to present) Provides citations to articles, books, doctoral dissertations, and book reviews on all aspects of religion and theology.
    Search Syntax
    Truncation:  use an asterisk *.
    Phrase Searching:  automatic.
    Wildcard:  use a question mark ?.


  • Essay & General Literature Index
    (1900 to present) Indexes essays published in books and edited collections. Covers the fields of art, economics, education, history, law, linguistics, literature, music, philosophy, political science, and religion, amongh others. Particularly strong in the humanities and social sciences.
    Search Syntax
    Truncation
    :  unnecessary when using “All-Smart Search”; otherwise, use an asterisk *.
    Phrase Searching:  use double quotation marks “ ”.
    Wildcard:  do not use with “All-Smart Search”; otherwise, use a question mark ?.


  • Feminae:  Medieval Women and Gender Index
    (1450-1500 [historical time period covered]; 1990 to present [publication date of articles indexed]) Indexes journal articles, essays, and book reviews on women, sexuality, and gender in medieval Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.

  • Humanities Abstracts
    (1907 to present [publication date of articles indexed]) Indexes articles in over 500 English-language periodicals in the fields of archaeology, art, classics, communication, film, folklore, hisotry, languages and literatures, music, philosophy, religion, and theatre. Also includes citations for book, theatre, and film reviews as well as interviews, obituaries, and some original creative works. Includes the full text of selected articles from 1995 to the present.
    Search Syntax
    Truncation:  unnecessary when using “All-Smart Search”; otherwise, use an asterisk *.
    Phrase Searching:  use double quotation marks “ ”.
    Wildcard:  do not use with “All-Smart Search”; otherwise, use a question mark ?.


  • JSTOR
    A searchable archive of the back issues of major scholarly journals. Note:  JTOR does not contain articles from the most recent 3-5 years.
    Search Syntax
    Truncation:  use a plus sign +.
    Phrase Searching:  automatic


  • Periodicals Index Online
    (c. 1665-1995 [publication date of articles indexed]) Indexes articles from humanities and social sciences periodicals from their first issues to 1995. Particularly useful for locating references to articles from the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. International in scope.
    Search Syntax
    Truncation:  use an asterisk *.
    Phrase Searching:  automatic.


  • Project Muse
    (c. mid-1990s to present) A searchable collection of full-text articles from journals published by university and scholarly presses.
    Search Syntax
    Truncation:  use an asterisk *.
    Phrase Searching:  use double quotation marks “ ”.


  • Web of Knowledge
    (c. 1900 to present) A multidisciplinary resource that provides citations to articles in over 10,000 journals in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences.
    Search Syntax
    Truncation:  use an asterisk *.
    Phrase Searching:  use double quotation marks “ ”.

    Wilcard: use a question mark ?.

 


Reference Resources

Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

  • Dictionary of the Middle Ages.  Ed. Joseph R. Strayer.  13 vols.  New York:  Scribner, 1982-1989.
    Reference D114 .D5
    Note: The Library also has the supplement to this set (Reference D114 .D5 1982 Suppl.1).

  • Encyclopedia of European Social History from 1350 to 2000.  Ed. Peter N. Stearns.  6 vols.  New York:  Scribner’s, 2001
    Reference R 306.094 E56

  • Encyclopedia of Religion.  Ed. Lindsay Jones.  2nd ed.  15 vols.  Detroit, MI:  Macmillan Reference, 2005.

  • Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages.  Ed. Andre Vauchez.  2 vols.  Chicago, IL:  Fitroy Dearborn, 2000.

  • Encyclopedia of the Renaissance.  Ed. Paul F. Grendler.  6 vols.  New York:  Scribner’s, 1999.
    Reference CB361 .E52

  • Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender:  Culture, Society, and History.  Ed. Fedwa Malti-Douglas.  Detroit:  Macmillan Reference, 2007.

  • Europe 1450 to 1789:  Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World.  Ed. Jonathan Dewald.  6 vols.  New York:  Scribner’s, 2004.

  • Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Western Tradition. Ed. Richard M. Golden. 3 vols. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2006.

  • The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft.  Rosemary Ellen Guiley.  New York:  Facts on File, 1989.
    Reference R 133.4 G956e

  • Historical Dictionary of Late Medieval England, 1272-1485.  Ed. Ronald H. Fritze and William B. Robison.  Westport, CT:  Greenwood, 2002.
    Reference R 942.03 H6731

  • Historical Dictionary of Stuart England, 1603-1689.  Ed. Ronald H. Fritze and William B. Robison.  Westport, CT:  Greenwood, 1996.
    Reference R 942.06 H673

  • Historical Dictionary of Tudor England, 1485-1603.  Ronald H. Fritze.  New York:  Greenwood Press, 1991.
    Reference R 942.04 H673

  • Historical Dictionary of Witchcraft.  Michael D. Bailey.  Lanham, MD:  Scarecrow, 2003.
    Reference R 133.4 B155h

  • The Hutchinson Encyclopedia of the Renaissance.  Ed. David Rundle.  Abingdon:  Helicon Publishing, 2005.

  • The Longman Handbook of Early Modern Europe, 1453-1763.  Chris Cook and Philip Broadhead.  New York:  Longman, 2001.
    Reference R 940.2 C771L

  • Medieval Folklore:  An Encyclopedia of Myths, Legends, Tales, Beliefs, and Customs.  Ed. Carl Lindahl, et al.  2 vols.  Santa Barbara, CA:  ABC-CLIO, 2000.
    Reference GR35 .M43

  • Medieval France:  An Encyclopedia.  Ed. William W. Kibler, et al.  New York:  Garland, 1995.
    Reference R 914.4 M489

  • Medieval Germany:  An Encyclopedia.  Ed. John M. Jeep.  New  York:  Garland, 2001.
    Reference DD157 .M43 2001

  • Medieval Iberia:  An Encyclopedia.  Ed. E. Michael Gerli.  New York:  Routledge, 2003.
    Reference DP99 .M33 2003

  • Medieval Ireland:  An Encyclopedia.  Ed. Seán Duffy.  New York:  Routledge, 2005.
    Reference R 941.5 M489

  • Medieval Italy:  An Encyclopedia.  Ed. Christopher Kleinhenz.  2 vols.  New York:  Routledge, 2004.
    Reference DA933 .M43 2005

  • New Catholic Encyclopedia.  2nd ed.  15 vols.  Washington, DC:  Catholic Univ., 2003. 

  • New Dictionary of the History of Ideas.  Ed. Maryanne Horowitz.  6 vols.  Detroit, MI:  Scribner’s, 2005.
    Reference R 901.0 D554 2005
    Note: The Library also has a copy of the first edition, the Dictionary of the History of Ideas, edited by Philip. P. Wiener (5 vols.; New York:  Scribner, 1973-1974), shelved in Reference at call number R 901.9 D554.

  • Tudor England:  An Encyclopedia.  Arthur F. Kinney and David W. Swain.  New York:  Garland, 2001.
    Reference DA315 .T755 2001

  • Women and Gender in Medieval Europe:  An Encyclopedia.  Ed. Margaret Schaus.  New York:  Routledge, 2006.
    Reference HQ1147 .E85 W66 2006

  • Women in the Middle Ages:  An Encyclopedia.  Ed. Katharina M. Wilson and Nadia Margolis.  2 vols.  Westport, CT:  Greenwood, 2004.
    Reference R 305.409 W872

 Bibliographies

  • International Medieval Bibliography.  Leeds, Engand:  Univ. of Leeds, 1967-.
    Reference Z6203 .I63

  • Medieval Heresies:  A Bibliography.  Carl T. Berkhout and Jeffrey B. Russell.  Toronto:  Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1981.
    Reference R 016.273 B512m

  • Women in Western European History:  A Select Chronological, Geographical, and Topical Bibliography.  Comp. Linda Frey, et al.  2 vols plus supplement.  Westport, CT:  Greenwood, 1982-1986.
    Reference R 016.3 F8931w

Biographical Information

  • An Annotated Index of Medieval Women.  Anne Echols and Marty Williams.  New York:  M. Wiener, 1992.
    Reference R 920.7 E18a

  • Biography Reference Bank.  H. W. Wilson, 2003-.

  • The Late Medieval Age of Crisis and Renewal, 1300-1500:  A Biographical Dictionary.  Ed. Clayton J. Drees.  Westport, CT:  Greenwood Press, 2001.
    Reference CB353 .L38 2001

  • Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H.C.G. Matthew and Brian Harrison.  60 vols.  New York:  Oxford University Press, 2004.
    Reference R 920 N2111
    Note: See also the first edition:  Dictionary of National Biography, edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee (22 vols; 1885-1901; reprinted London:  Oxford Univ. Press, 1963-1965), shelved in Reference at call number R 920 N211.

  • The Rise of the Medieval World, 500-1300:  A Biographical Dictionary.  Ed. Jana K. Schulman.  Westport, CT:  Greenwood Press, 2002.

  • Who’s Who in the Middle Ages.  Mary Ellen Snodgrass.  Jefferson, NC:  McFarland, 2001.
    Reference R 920.04 S673w

Related Guides


Thanks to Susanna Boylston, Assistant Director, Information Literacy & Content Selection
, who created an earlier version of this guide.