Witch craze terror and fantasy in baroque Germany /

Roper, Lyndal.

Witch craze terror and fantasy in baroque Germany / Lyndal Roper. - New Haven, Conn. : Yale University Press, (c)2004. - 1 online resource (xiv, 362 pages) : illustrations.

Includes bibliographies and index.

The Baroque landscape -- Interrogation and torture -- Cannibalism -- Sex with the devil -- Sabbaths -- Fertility -- Crones -- Family revenge -- Godless children -- A witch in the age of enlightenment.

"In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries thousands of women confessed to being witches and were put to death ... Drawing on hundreds of original trial transcripts and other rare sources in four areas of Southern Germany, where most of the witches were executed, Lyndal Roper paints a vivid picture of their lives, families and tribulations. She also explores the psychology of witch-hunting, explaining why it was mostly older women who were the victims of witch crazes, why they confessed to crimes, and how the depiction of witches in art and literature has influenced the characterisation of elderly women in western culture"--Dust jacket.



9780300176520


Witchcraft--History--Germany--16th century.
Trials (Witchcraft)--Germany.


Electronic Books.

BF1583 / .W583 2004