{"product_id":"trafficking-with-demons-magic-ritual-and-gender-from-late-antiquity-to-1000-paperback-softback-9781501785207","title":"Trafficking with Demons; Magic, Ritual, and Gender from Late Antiquity to 1000 (Paperback \/ softback) 9781501785207","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eTrafficking with Demons\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eMagic, Ritual, and Gender from Late Antiquity to 1000\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eMartha Rampton (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781501785207\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback \/ softback, published 15 January 2026\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e480 pages\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 3 x 15.2 cm, 0.454 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a monumental work. I found the book fascinating, enjoyable to read and full of interesting detail. It raises important questions about these relationships in subsequent European historym and it will be essential reading for gender studies courses and scholars of medieval religion and witchcraft.\u003c\/p\u003e (Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association) \u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eTrafficking with Demons\u003c\/i\u003e, Rampton has set out to challenge established scholarly views on the role of women in ritual magic during the first millennium... In refocusing our attention on the relationship between ritual and authority, and between authority and gender, Rampton's study offers an important new contribution to our understanding of elite Church views of magic during the first millennium.\u003c\/p\u003e (Journal of Religious History) \u003cp\u003eA comprehensive study of the changes and continuities that magic—and its gendered and ritual associations—underwent from early Christianity through to the Carolingian period... This is an extremely valuable study, and will in particular appeal to scholars and students entering into and seeking a foothold within the study of early Christian and early medieval magic.\u003c\/p\u003e (Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural) \u003cp\u003eRampton's book is an ambitious project, attempting to cover a millennium of historical, social, and political contexts. While the book covers a broad span of time and geographical area, it helps the reader understand how views on magic changed drastically depending on where and when magic was discussed. It fills a gap in scholarship and does so in a way that engages the reader and highlights the depth of the research presented.\u003c\/p\u003e (Cerae: An Australasian Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies) \u003cp\u003eThis book will serve as a stimulus to careful rethinking about a period in the history of magic that deserves more attention than it has sometimes been given.\u003c\/p\u003e (Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTrafficking with Demons\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e explores how magic was perceived, practiced, and prohibited in western Europe during the first millennium CE.\u003c\/b\u003e Through the overlapping frameworks of religion, ritual, and gender, Martha Rampton connects early Christian reckonings with pagan magic to later doctrines and dogmas. Challenging established views on the role of women in ritual magic during this period, Rampton provides a new narrative of the ways in which magic was embedded within the foundational assumptions of western European society, informing how people understood the cosmos, divinity, and their own Christian faith.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAs Rampton shows, throughout the first Christian millennium, magic was thought to play a natural role within the functioning of the universe and existed within a rational cosmos hierarchically arranged according to a \"great chain of being.\" Trafficking with the \"demons of the lower air\" was the essense of magic. Interactions with those demons occurred both in highly formalistic, ritual settings and on a routine and casual basis. Rampton tracks the competition between pagan magic and Christian belief from the first century CE, when it was fiercest, through the early Middle Ages, as atavistic forms of magic mutated and found sanctuary in the daily habits of the converted peoples and new paganisms entered Europe with their own forms of magic. By the year 1000, she concludes, many forms of magic had been tamed and were, by the reckoning of the elite, essentially ineffective, as were the women who practiced it and the rituals that attended it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart 1: Studying Magic\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e1. Magic and Its Sources in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages\u003cbr\u003e2. Demons of the Lower Air\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart 2: Breaking In: Christianity in Classical Rome\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e3. Ritual, Demons, and Sacred Space\u003cbr\u003e4. A Thousand Vacuous Observances\u003cbr\u003e5. Maleficium and Traffic with the Dead\u003cbr\u003e6. Screech Owl, Vampire, Moon, and Women's Magic\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart 3: Traffic with Demons: Post-Roman Europe\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e7. Sub Dio\u003cbr\u003e8. Victimless Magic and Execrable Remedies\u003cbr\u003e9. The Awesome Power of the Women's Craft\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart 4: Skepticism: The Carolingian Era\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e10. Demonization of the Natural World\u003cbr\u003e11. Superstition and Divination Questioned\u003cbr\u003e12. Women's Magic Challenged\u003cbr\u003e13. Magic, Women, and the Carolingian Court\u003cbr\u003e14. Magic and Materia Medica\u003cbr\u003e15. Conclusion\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Cornell University Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52670852825368,"sku":"9781501785207","price":24.69,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/trafficking-with-demons-magic-ritual-and-gender-from-late-antiquity-to-1000-paperback-softback-9781501785207","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}