• Home
• Study
• Study Information
• Modules
• Module Information

Early Modern Magic and Witchcraft

Module description

Wizards and witches and magic, oh my! This module delves into the murky world of early modern Britain, when debates raged about how religion might be practised the ‘right’ way, and what to do with those who dabbled with supernatural powers. You will learn about the social world of sixteenth and seventeenth century Britain and its religious, political and gendered context, and how this impacted attitudes towards magic and witchcraft. We will hear from a range of voices including law-makers and theologians, playwrights and polemicists and even magicians and accused witches themselves. You will get to analyse sources including trial records, pamphlets and plays, and practise ‘reading against the grain’ to uncover forgotten and silenced voices. There will also be an opportunity to develop your palaeography (old handwriting) skills as we transcribe some of the original documents.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims to:

• Give you an understanding of life in the early modern period and the history of magic and witchcraft
• Familiarise you with a range of different source types and equip you with knowledge of how to weigh the impact/value of these.
• Introduce you to key themes, debates, and methodological and ethical considerations in the history of persecution
• Equip you with analytical and critical skills necessary for approaching future historical work

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Understand and assess the cultural milieu of Britain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and how this affected evolving attitudes towards magic and witchcraft.
• 2. Understand and become familiar with the different types of sources available for the early modern period, and the many different voices that weighed in on the topic of the supernatural.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Identify the problems of using historical sources e.g. bias, reliability, etc., and compare the validity of different types of source (e.g. written, visual, material)
• 4. Demonstrate the ability to apply different methodological approaches to the analysis of historical sources

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Digest, select and organise material to produce, to a deadline, a coherent and cogent argument, delivered in written and oral form
• 6. Reflect critically on your own work, respond constructively to feedback, and to implement suggestions and improve work on this basis
• 7. Critically analyse the intention, biases, impact and audience of printed and written sources

Syllabus plan

While the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Trial records including witness depositions, verdicts and gaol calendars
• Early modern spell books and grimoires
• Plays and imaginative literatures concerning magic, witchcraft, fairies, gods etc
• Pamphlets and polemical works
• Witch-hunting guidebooks and sceptical treatises
• Letters and diaries
• Legislation and government documents
• Art and visual sources

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%. 

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Bengt Ankarloo et al., Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, Volume 4: The Period of the Witch Trials (Penn Press, 2002)
• Robin Briggs, Witches & Neighbours: The Social And Cultural Context of European Witchcraft (Penguin, 1998)
• Owen Davies, Popular Magic: Cunning-folk in English History (Routledge, 2007)
• Malcolm Gaskill, Crime and Mentalities in Early Modern England (CUP, 2012)
• Marion Gibson, Reading Witchcraft (Taylor and Francis: 1999)
• Julian Goodare (ed.), Scottish Witches and Witch-Hunters (Palgrave, 2013)
• Frank Klaassen, Making magic in Elizabethan England: two early modern vernacular books of magic (Penn Press, 2019)
• Alan Macfarlane, Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England (Routledge, 1970)
• Diane Purkiss, The Witch in History: Early Modern and Twentieth-Century Representations (Routledge, 1996)
• Tabitha Stanmore, Love Spells and Lost Treasure: Service magic in England from the later middle ages to the early modern era (CUP, 2022)
• Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (1971)
• Dietmer Tatzl, "Secret, black, and midnight hags": the conception, presentation and functions of witches in English Renaissance drama (Braumuller, 2005)

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – Faculty to provide hyperlink to appropriate pages
• The Scottish Survey of Witchcraft (University of Edinburgh) - http://www.shca.ed.ac.uk/Research/witches/
  

Key words search

Early modern; witchcraft; social history; Britain