Students will develop their knowledge of the European witchcraft phenomenon, its causes, contexts, and consequences, and their skills in thinking, speaking, and writing critically about complex historical phenomena, through the examination of textual and non-textual primary sources and the evaluation of diverse interpretations of sources, events, and ideas.

ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS AND EXAMINATION POLICY
You cannot make-up a major exam (midterm or final) without the permission of the Dean’s Office. The Dean’s Office will grant such permission only when the absence was caused by a serious impediment, such as a documented illness, hospitalization or death in the immediate family (in which you must attend the funeral) or other situations of similar gravity. Absences due to other meaningful conflicts, such as job interviews, family celebrations, travel difficulties, student misunderstandings or personal convenience, will not be excused. Students who will be absent from a major exam must notify the Dean’s Office prior to that exam. Absences from class due to the observance of a religious holiday will normally be excused. Individual students who will have to miss class to observe a religious holiday should notify the instructor by the end of the Add/Drop period to make prior arrangements for making up any work that will be missed. The final exam period runs until ____________

Letter grades and corresponding percentages for this class

94 – 100 points = A

90 – 93.99 pts = A-

87 – 89.99 = B+

83 – 86.99 = B

80 – 82.99 = B-

77 – 79.99 = C+

70 – 76.99 = C

60 – 69.99 = D

59.99 – 0 = F 

All readings will be either provided through Moodle or accessible via the Frohring Library

January

Week 1

16 T Course Intro: Defining Magic and Witchcraft

ü  Ronald Hutton, The Witch: A History of Fear From Ancient Times to the Present (New Haven and London:

    Yale University Press, 2017), pp. 3-9; 16-23 (Deep Perspectives: The Global Context)

18 TH New Trends in the Search for the Explanations

·         Read one of the following two articles:

ü  Robin Briggs, “‘Many Reasons Why’: Witchcraft and the Problem of Multiple Explanation”, in Witchcraft in

    Early Modern Europe: Studies in Culture and Belief, ed. by Jonathan Barry, Marianne Hester, and Gareth

    Roberts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 49-63

ü  Edward Bever, “Current Trends in the Application of Cognitive Science to Magic”, Magic, Ritual, and

   Witchcraft 7/1 (2012): 3-18

 

Week 2

23 T Magic in the Ancient World

ü  Fritz Graf, Magic in the Ancient World (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003, 6th ed.),

    pp. 1-19 (Intro: The Sources, and The Study of Ancient Magic)

 Optional:

ü  Naomi Janowitz, Aelian on Tortoise Sex and the Artifice of “Erotic Love Magic”, in Fabrizio Conti, ed.,

    Civilizations of the Supernatural (2020), pp. 13-30

25 TH  Curse Tablets and Binding Magic in Rome

ü  Elizabeth Ann Pollard, "Witch-Crafting in Roman Literature and Art", Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft (2008): 119-155

- How to create a curse tablet (without harming anyone!): film screening and discussion  

 Week 3

30 T  The Witches of Rome

ü  Maxwell Teitel Paule, Canidia: Rome’s First Witch (London: Bloomsbury, 2017), pp. 1-22 (Canidia, or What Is a Witch?)

ü  Horace, Epode V, "The Witch' Incantation":

https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/HoraceEpodesAndCarmenSaeculare.php#anchor_Toc98670053

February

1 TH   Witches Devouring Babies

ü  Maxwell Teitel Paule, Canidia: Rome’s First Witch (London: Bloomsbury, 2017), pp. 65-79

    (Canidia as Child-Killing Demon)

 Week 4

6 T Shamanism

ü  Robert L. Winzeler, Anthropology and Religion (Altamira Press, 2012), pp. 154-169 

ü  Nancy Caciola, Discerning Spirits. Divine and Demonic Possession in the Middle Ages 
    (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003), pp. 72-78 (Folk Trances)

8 TH  The World of Nature

 ü  Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution 

    (New York: HarperCollins, 1989), pp. 1-41 (Nature as Female)

Week 5

13 T   The “Game of Diana” (Ludus Dianae) 

ü  Kors and Peters, Witchcraft in Europe, 400-1700, pp. 50-54 (Isidore of Seville: Etymologies); 
    pp.60-67 (Regino of Prum: The Canon Episcopi, and Burchard of Worms: The Corrector) 

ü  Ronald Hutton, The Witch: A History of Fear From Ancient Times to the Present, pp. 120-146 (The Hosts of the Night)

15 TH The Demonization of Folkloric Beliefs

ü  Kors and Peters, Witchcraft in Europe, 400-1700, pp. 112-118 (Popes, Theologians, Preachers, Lawyers,

    and Judges; Pope Gregory IX: Vox in Rama; Pope Alexander IV: Sorcery and the Inquisitors); pp. 119-127

    (Pope John XXII: Sorcery and the Inquisitors; Nicolau Eymeric: The Directorium inquisitorum)

F 16 Make-up day for Thursday, April 25  

--- Film Screening and Discussion

Week 6

20 T  Constructing The Sabbath I

ü  Martine Ostorero, “The Concept of the Witches’ Sabbath in the Alpine Region (1430-1440): Text and Context”,

    in Witchcraft Mythologies and Persecutions: Demons, Spirits, Witches / 3, ed. by Gábor Klaniczay and Éva Pócs, 

    (Budapest: CEU Press, 2008), pp. 15-34

ü  Kors and Peters, Witchcraft in Europe, 400-1700, pp. 149-154 (The Sect of Diabolical Witches; Pope Alexander V

    to Pontus Fougeyron on New Sects; Pope Eugenius IV: Two Letters on the Pressing Danger)

22 TH  Constructing The Sabbath II

ü  Kors and Peters, Witchcraft in Europe, 400-1700, pp. 155-162 (Johannes Nider: The Formicarius;

    the Errores Gazariorum); pp. 166-169 (Martin Le Franc, The Defender of Ladies)

February 26-March 1 (Mon-Fri) Spring Break

March

Week 7

5 T Interpreting The Sabbath

ü  Carlo Ginzburg, Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath, tr. by Raymond Rosenthal 
    (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004), pp. 89-110

ü  Marina Montesano, Folklore, Magic, and Witchcraft: Cultural Exchanges (London: Routledge, 2021), pp. 1-15 (Introduction)

 7  TH  Classical Culture and Folklore

ü  Fabrizio Conti, "Notes on The Nature of Beliefs in Witchcraft: Folklore and Classical Culture in 15th

    Century Mendicant Traditions", Religions (2019), 10, 576: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/10/10/576

 Week 8

12 T  Paradigms of Witchcraft: The "Cumulative Concept" and the “Mythologies of Witchcraft”

ü  Brian Levack, The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe (London: Longman, repr. 1993), Ch. 2 (The Intellectual Foundations)

ü  Richard Kieckhefer, “Mythologies of Witchcraft in the Fifteenth Century”, Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 1-1 (2006): 79-108

14 TH  The Preacher’s Demons: Fear of Witches in an Italian Town

ü  "Bernardino of Siena Preaches Against Women Sorcerers", in Kors and Peters Witchcraft in Europe, pp. 133-137

ü  Franco Mormando, The Preacher’s Demons: Bernardino of Siena and the Social Underworld of Early Renaissance Italy, selected pp.

---Take-Home Midterm Exam Due on 15 March by 11:59PM

Week 9

19 T  Instructing the Inquisitors and Persecuting the Witches

ü  Kors and Peters, Witchcraft in Europe, 400-1700, pp. 176-221 (The Hammer of Witches); p. 229 (Pope Alexander VI's Letter)

21 TH  Why Women and Why Witches Fly

ü  Walter Stephens, Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the Crisis of Beliefs (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2001), 

    Chapters 2 and 5

 Week 10

26 T  The Male Domination Issue

ü  Marianne Hester, Lewd Women and Wicked Witches: A Study of the Dynamics of Male Domination

     (London: Routledge, 1992), pp.1-32--- this volume is available as an e-book through the online catalogue of the Frohring Library

ü  Tamar Herzig, "Flies, Heretics, and the Gendering of Witchcraft", Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 5/1 (2010): 51-80

28 TH  Film Screening and Discussion

Ø  Häxan, the first docufilm on witchcraft, released in 1922

ü  Teofilo F. Ruiz, The Terror of History: On the Uncertainties of Life in Western Civilization 

     (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011), pp. 4-16

April

  Week 11

2 T   The Witch-Craze

ü  W. Behringer, "Climatic Change and Witch-Hunting: The Impact of the Little Ice Age on Mentalities", Climatic Change 43 (1999) 

ü  Richard Kieckhefer, “The First Wave of Trials for Diabolic Witchcraft”, in The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft

    in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America, ed. by Brian P. Levack (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), pp. 159-178

4 TH   NO CLASS = Students will attend the keynote Lecture on Friday 5 April 10AM-11AM in the Aula Magna:

 Gábor KLANICZAY, Central European University, "The Ambivalence of the Supernatural:

Saints, Visionaries, Witches and Magicians in Renaissance Rome" as part of the International Conference

"Rome in the Renaissance" (JCU, April 5-6)

Saturday, April 6: Group Project Presentation within the JCU International Conference "Rome in the Renaissance"

Week 12

9 T   Witches: Beliefs and Behaviors

ü  Fabrizio Conti, Witchcraft, Superstition, and Observant Franciscan Preachers: Pastoral Approach and Intellectual

    Debate in Renaissance Milan (Turnhout: Brepols, 2015), pp. 238-301

11 TH  Images of Witches

ü  Charles Zika, “Images of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe”, in Levack, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft

 Week 13

16 T  The Benandanti: Forced to Become Witches

ü  Carlo Ginzburg, The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and 

    Seventeenth Centuries (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), pp. 1-32

18 TH Film Screening and Discussion

Paper Due on Friday, April 19

Week 14

23 T  The Rise of Vampirism and Witchcraft Today

ü  Brian Levack, “The Decline and End of Witchcraft Prosecutions”, in The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft, pp. 429-446

ü  Modern transformations of witchcraft: https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/witchcraft-taschen-witch-symbolism-art-culture-queue/index.html

25 TH NO CLASS - Holiday

Final Exam