Narratives of Sorcery and Magic
From the Most Authentic Sources

Thomas Wright's interest in folklore and legend led to this two-volume 1851 account of sorcery and magic across Europe.

Thomas Wright (Author)

9781108044196, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 16 February 2012

352 pages
21.6 x 2 x 14 cm, 0.45 kg

The English historian and antiquary Thomas Wright (1810–70) co-founded and joined a number of antiquarian and literary societies. He was greatly interested in Old English, Middle English and Anglo-Norman texts, and in the 1840s and 1850s he published widely within these areas. Gradually his focus shifted to the archaeology of Roman Britain and to Anglo-Saxon cemeteries. Although much of Wright's research has been completely superseded, his work is still considered worth consulting, as he collected material not readily available elsewhere. This two-volume 1851 publication is testimony to Wright's interest in folklore, sorcery and legend. In Volume 2, he maintains a broad perspective while surveying instances of witchcraft in the seventeenth century. Wright writes about such famous cases as the Earl of Somerset, the Ursuline nuns of Loudun, and the Mohra witches in Sweden, to whom the Devil appeared with a red beard and a high-crowned hat.

18. Adventures of Doctor Torralva
19. Trial of the Earl and Countess of Somerset
20. La maréchale d'Ancre
21. Louis Gaufridi
22. The Ursulines of Loudun
23. The Lancashire witches
24. Witchcraft in England during the earlier part of the seventeenth century
25. Witchcraft under the Commonwealth. Matthew Hopkins the Witch-finder
26. Witchcraft in Germany, in the earlier part of the seventeenth-century
27. The witches of Scotland under King James after his accession to the English throne
28. Confessions of Isobel Gowdie
29. The witches of Mohra in Sweden
30. Sir Matthew Hale and Chief Justice Holt
31. The doings of Satan in New England
32. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX]