Beyond the Witch Trials: Witchcraft and Magic in Enlightenment Europe

This edited collection examines how witchcraft and magic persisted in European society during the Enlightenment, when intellectual and legal attitudes were changing. Its essays consider beliefs and responses among both educated authorities and ordinary communities, challenging any simple division between reason and superstition.

The geographical range includes England, Scotland, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Germany, Finland and Sweden. Subjects include 18th-century Scottish witchcraft, Swedish responses to accusations, a Dutch witch doctor and his clients, counter-witchcraft practices, and the circulation of magical knowledge in Enlightenment Germany. Together, the essays present witchcraft as a continuing social and cultural concern after the great witch trials had ended, rather than a belief abruptly extinguished by modern thought.