Week 1: Overview of course and project

Andries Jacobsz Stock, "The Witchs' Sabbath", 1610- engraving

This is a blog to keep track of my readings, research and projects for seminar HIS202C: "Witchcraft and Witch-Hunts in the Early Modern World" with Prof. Kathy Stuart for the Fall quarter, 2014. Each week our class will focus on one important secondary source. Each student will present a complete slideshow of images pertinent to that week's text. The quarter culminates in the completion of a short research paper (12-20 pp) utilizing primary source materials.

Mathias Stom (c.1600-1650), "Saul and the Witch of Endear", c. 1635

I consider myself a "modern Europeanist" and my research focuses predominantly on the Long Nineteenth Century in Britain, France and Germany. However, I enjoy spending time learning about the early modern period as well- especially as it relates to the subjects of science, magic and religion. 

In my paper I will be looking closely at how an early modern trope from the Bible (the figure of the Witch of Endor) was interpreted, visualized and utilized in modern texts and artworks. There will be some comparison with early modern images and texts to track change over time. There are very few medieval images of the Witch of Endor, but they proliferate in the early modern period. Technically this is due to the explosion of print culture and the popularity of broadsheets and prints showcasing images of witchcraft, sorcery and various "wonders". Culturally speaking European witch-hunters and theologians were looking to the scriptures to find relevant examples of "witches" in order to better understand the threat of witchcraft in their own era. There are a number of references to magic in the Bible, but only one "witch" (or medium depending on the translation)- and that is the Witch of Endor.

Saul and the witch of Endor, after Salvator Rosa

The premier text on early modern images of witchcraft is Charles' Zika's "The Appearance of Withcraft". Zika is currently working on another project focusing on images of the Witch of Endor in the early modern period.

This blog is also a place to keep track of the main arguments, primary source materials, rhetorical strengths and weaknesses of the various secondary texts that will be read in this quarter.

Jacques de Gheyn II (1565-1629), "The Witch's Kitchen", c. 1600

I have chosen the blog title WITCH-TECH because I am also keenly interested in the methods of material culture and technology studies and hope to utilize these methods in thinking through some of the problems raised by my studies of the witch-craze and later visual representations of witch's power through the use of objects! I'm not sure if these will find there way into this current project, but I hope I'll begin to find ways to connect the idea of early modern and late modern sorcery with that of technology. After all sorcery is a kind of technology, just as technology is a kind of sorcery! A number of the objects shown in de Gheyn's print above have a long history of being associated with divination, spell-casting and witchcraft in European history.

Here's a partial list of the magical objects seen in the de Gheyn print linked to texts that explain them in terms of use for witchcraft or magical purposes as found in early modern European literature and folklore.

1.) tripod
2.) preserved head
3.) corpse
4.) broom
5.) bobbin, thread, distaff or spindle
6.) hand candle or "hand of glory"
7.) feline familiar/ witch's cat
8.) horse skeleton and bones
9.) candles for working spells