Witch-hunts in the Little Ice Age in Europe: selected references and further reading

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25 September 2024
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To accompany the article by Wayne Shepheard and Karin Helmstaedt on Witch-hunts during the Little Ice Age, please find the authors' list of selected references and further reading recommendations below

Witchcraft and the Little Ice Age

Selected References & Further Reading

Baker, Emerson W. (2015). A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience. Oxford University Press. 398 pp.

Behringer, Wolfgang. (1995). Weather, Hunger and Fear: Origins of the European Witch-Hunts in Climate, Society and Mentality. German History, 13(1), pp. 1-27. https://www.uni-saarland.de/fileadmin/upload/lehrstuhl/behringer/PDF/weather.pdf

Behringer, Wolfgang. (1999). Climatic Change and Witch-Hunting: The impact of the Little Ice Age on mentalities. Climatic Change, 43, pp. 335-351. [important article for old treatises references] file:///F:/Downloads/Climatic_Change_and_Witch_Hunting%20(2).pdf

Behringer, Wolfgang. (2004). Witches and Witch-Hunts: A global history. Wiley, 320 pp.

Behringer, Wolfgang. (2010). A Cultural History of Climate. (published in German in 2007 as Kulturgeschichte des Klimas by C. H. Beck; translated by Patrick Camiller). Cambridge: Polity Press. 295 pp.

Boyer, Paul & Stephen Nissenbaum (Eds.). (1977). The Salem Witchcraft Papers: Verbatim transcriptions of the court records, in three volumes. De Capo Press. https://salem.lib.virginia.edu/category/swp.html

Clayton, John A. (2007). The Lancashire Witch Conspiracy: A History of Pendle Forest and the Pendle Witch Trials. Barrowford Press, 302 pp.

Dillinger, Johannes. (2019). The Routledge History of Witchcraft. Routledge, 422 pp.

Drake, Frederick C. (1968). Witchcraft in the American Colonies, 1647-62. American Quarterly, 20(4), pp. 694-725.

Gent, Frank J. (2017). The Trial of the Bideford Witches. Independently Published, 78 pp.

Godbeer, Richard. (1993). The Devil’s Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England. Cambridge University Press, 268 pp. [search on Ancestry.com; browse on Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/devilsdominionma0000godb_p8m2]

Goodare, Julian, Rita Voltmer & Liv Helene Willumsen (Eds.). (2020). Demonology and Witch-Hunting in Early Modern Europe. Routledge, 402 pp.

Helmstaedt, Karin. (2023). Remembering my ancestor who was burned as a witch. Deutsche Welle, Culture / Germany, 30 April 2023. https://www.dw.com/en/a-witch-in-the-family/a-65447802

Hudson, Chris. (2016). Witch Trials: Discontent in Early Modern Europe. Working Paper No. HEIDWP11-2016, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, International Economics Department, Working Paper Series. https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/156127/1/871678241.pdf

Kieckhefer, Richard. (1976). European Witch Trials: Their foundations in popular and learned culture 1300-1500. University of California Press, 181 pp.

Lamb, Hubert H. (1977). Climate: Present, Past and Future, Volume 2 – Climatic History and the Future. Methuen & Co. Ltd., 835 pp.

Leeson, Peter R. & Jacob W. Russ. (2017). Witch Trials. The Economic Journal, August, pp. 2066-2105. https://www.peterleeson.com/Witch_Trials.pdf

Levack, Brian P. (2013). The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America. Oxford University Press, 644 pp.

Maxwell-Stuart, Peter G. (2011). Witch Beliefs and Witch Trials in the Middle Ages: Documents and readings. Continuum International Publishing Group, 228 pp.

Miguel, E. (2005). Poverty and Witch Killing. The Review of Economic Studies, 72(4), 1153-1172. http://emiguel.econ.berkeley.edu/assets/miguel_research/45/_Paper__Poverty_and_Witch_Killing.pdf

Oster, Emily. (2004). Witchcraft, Weather and Economic Growth in Renaissance Europe. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 18(1), pp. 215-228. https://www.sfu.ca/~poitras/jpe_witches_04.pdf

Pfister, Ulrich. (2010). Consumer Prices and Wages in Germany, 1500-1850. Center for quantitative Economics. 45 pp. https://www.wiwi.uni-muenster.de/cqe/sites/cqe/files/CQE_Paper/CQE_WP_15_2010.pdf

Potts, Thomas. (1613). The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster (Reproduced as Potts’s Discovery of Witches, introduction by James Crossley, 1845. https://archive.org/details/pottsdiscoveryw01pottgoog/page/n9/mode/2up)

Rummel, Walter. (1991). Bauern, Herren, und Hexen. Kritische Studien zur Geschichtswissenschaft 94, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 424 pp.

Scott, Susan & Christopher J. Duncan. (1997). The mortality crisis of 1623 in north-west England. Local Population Studies, 58(Spring), pp. 14-25.      http://www.localpopulationstudies.org.uk/PDF/LPS58/LPS58_1997_14-25.pdf

Shepheard, W. Wayne. (2018). Surviving Mother Nature’s Tests: The effects climate change and other natural phenomena have had on the lives of our ancestors. Unlock the Past, 179 pp.

Shepheard, Wayne. (2023). Genealogy and the Little Ice Age. Unlock the Past, 82 pp.

Voltmer, Rita. (2008). Hexen: Wissen was stimmt. Verlag Herder, 128 pp.

Old Treatises

Kramer, Heinrich & Jakob Sprenger. (1486). Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches - English Translation by Montague Summers) https://ia803003.us.archive.org/13/items/b31349717/b31349717.pdf

Molitor, Ulrich. (1489). Opusculum de sagis maleficis. (Concerning Witches and Sorceresses) https://ia601600.us.archive.org/25/items/de-lamiis-et-pythonicis-mulieribus/De%20Lamiis%20et%20Pythonicis%20Mulieribus.pdf

Plantsch, Martin. (1507). Opusculum de sagis maleficis. [in Latin] (A treatise on witchcraft) https://books.google.ca/books?id=CqpSAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

Scot, Reginald. (1584) The Discoverie of Witchcraft https://ia800201.us.archive.org/32/items/discoverieofwitc00scot/discoverieofwitc00scot.pdf

Roberts, Alexander. (1616). A Treatise of Witchraft. https://archive.org/details/b30333416

Bragge, Francis. (1712). Witchcraft Farther Display’d. https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/pdf/b30545158

Boulton, Richard. (1722). The Possibility and Reality of Magick, Sorcery, and Witchcraft, demonstrated, or a Vindication of a Compleat History of Magick, Sorcery, and Witchcraft. https://archive.org/details/possibilityreali00boul/page/n3/mode/2up

Websites & Online References

Boston Public Library: Salem Witch Trials https://guides.bpl.org/salemwitchtrials/home

Cornell University Witchcraft Collection https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/witchcraftcoll/

Early Modern Witch Trials https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/early-modern-witch-trials/

Germanna Foundation newsletter, Spring 2016 https://germanna.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Germanna-Foundation-Newsletter-Spring-2016-web.pdf

Lancashire County Online Parish Clerk pages https://www.lan-opc.org.uk/

Pendle Witches https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pendle_witches

Wellcome Collection: Names of the Witches (in Scotland) 1658 [search on Ancestry.com] https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/pdf/b19111319

Witches and Witchcraft on The Online Books Page begin: https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/browse?type=subject&index=185238&key=wit%20and%20humor%20african%20american&c=c

Witchcraft Bibliography https://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ld.php?content_id=32757238

Witchcraft & the law in early modern Europe & USA: Home https://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/law-witch

Witchfinder General Project (Scotland) http://witches.is.ed.ac.uk/death/

Videos

1612: The Disturbing Witch Trial That Shook Britain | The Pendle Witch Child | Chronicle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQrva6RAkak

Dark Age Britain’s War with Witchcraft: A century of murder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBBHfZwjxYY

Death in the Dark Country: the Pendle Witch Trials https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wegs_uHDZiE

Witches – A century of murder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpic8sIh2JM

The Evil Career of Matthew Hopkins the Witchfinder General https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvVm29b1EP4

Why Witch Hunts are not just a Dark Chapter from the Past  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2Q1Vo9kduo

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