Cultures of Witchcraft in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Present ─ Essays in Honour of Willem De Blecourt

This volume is a collection based on the contributions to witchcraft studies of Willem de Blécourt, to whom it is dedicated, and who provides the opening chapter, setting out a methodological and conceptual agenda for the study of cultures of witchcraft (broadly defined) in Europe since the Middle Ages. It includes contributions from historians, anthropologists, literary scholars and folklorists who have collaborated closely with De Blécourt. Essays pick up some or all of the themes and approaches he pioneered, and apply them to cases which range in time and space across all the main regions of Europe since the thirteenth century until the present day. While some draw heavily on texts, others on archival sources, and others on field research, they all share a commitment to reconstructing the meaning and lived experience of witchcraft (and its related phenomena) to Europeans at all levels, respecting the many varieties and ambiguities in such meanings and experiences and resisting attempts to reduce them to master narratives or simple causal models.

Jonathan Barry is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Exeter, UK, and currently a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator for his project, 'The Medical World of Early Modern England, Ireland and Wales c.1500-1715'.

Owen Davies is Professor of Social History at the University of Hertfordshire, UK. Together with Jonathan Barry and Willem de Blecourt, he edits the Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic series.

Cornelie Usborne is Professor Emerita of History at Roehampton University, UK, and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London. She has shared her life with Willem de Blecourt, and thus with witchcraft studies, for many years.