Brian P Levack
Biographic Data
| ID | 1083618 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Brian P Levack |
| GIVEN NAMES | Brian P |
| FAMILY NAME | Levack |
| SIGNATURE | LEVACK B P |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Texas at Austin 1 |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 25 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1972 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Martin Delrio
Martin Delrio, a Spanish Jesuit born at Antwerp in 1551, is known mainly for his massive demonological treatise, Disquisitiones magicarum libri sex, which was published in three parts between 1599 and 1600 and reprinted as late as 1756. In this comprehensive study of Delrio’s scholarship, Jan Machielsen places Delrio’s demonology within the broader context of his humanist and theological scholarship. This large and diverse corpus includes a trans…
Writing and Editing Texts for the 21st Century Classroom
The Horrors of Witchcraft and Demonic Possession
One of the deepest horrors experienced by people in early modern Europe occurred as they read accounts or viewed images of the witches sabbath. These imagined assemblies, which were believed to have involved cannibalistic infanticide and other practices that challenged the moral and social order, evoked an existential horror that the Devil and his human accomplices threatened to destroy Christianity and Christian civilization. As belief in the wi…
Devil Within
The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America
The scholarly study of the history of witchcraft, which began with the publication of Wilhelm Soldan’s study of witch trials in the mid-nineteenth century, continues to grow at a furious pace and shows no signs of abating. This book aims to summarize the current state of knowledge in the field; identify the most important historical literature that has been produced on the subject, to discuss the different ways scholars have approached the subjec…
Witchcraft in the Modern World
The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe
Between 1450 and 1750 thousands of people – most of them women – were accused, prosecuted and executed for the crime of witchcraft. The witch-hunt was not a single event; it comprised thousands of individual prosecutions, each shaped by the religious and social dimensions of the particular area as well as political and legal factors. Brian Levack sorts through the proliferation of theories to provide a coherent introduction to the subject, as wel…
The Devil Within
Levack, Brian P. The Devil Within: Possession and Exorcism in the Christian West. An article from journal Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme (Volume 36, Number 3, Summer 2013, pp. 5-200), on Érudit
Between the Devil and the Host
Michael Ostling’s splendid study of witchcraft in early modern Poland (the first book on the subject in English) fills a wide gap in the rapidly growing field of witchcraft studies. Ostling’s achievement is two-fold. In Part I, entitled ‘History’, he provides an illuminating analysis of Polish witchcraft prosecutions, in which he constructs a social profile of the accused, establishes the grounds for suspicion and formal accusation, charts the ch…
The First Wave of Trials for Diabolical Witchcraft
This article discusses the first wave of trials for diabolical witchcraft. It suggests that when we examine the trials in a particular region, and when we read late medieval writings about witchcraft, we find that ideas were brought together in discernible but fragile coalescence, then sometimes diffused over broader areas, and in the process fused with ideas taken from different sources; and when we look back at the cluster which was once formed…
The West, Encounters and Transformations
The Prosecution of Sexual Crimes in Early Eighteenth-Century Scotland
A session of the north circuit held at Perth on 20 May 1709 marked a turning point in the prosecution of sexual crimes in Scotland and a significant change in the administration of Scottish criminal justice. By pardoning more than 300 men and women charged with fornication and adultery, the court brought about the de facto decriminalisation of those crimes in the Scottish secular courts. An incest trial held before the court the same day revealed…
Nicholls, The Jacobean Union
A Case of Witchcraft
An extraordinary tale of passion, intrigue, and revenge, A Case of Witchcraft is the true story of Urbain Grandier, a seventeenth-century priest who was accused and found guilty of sorcery. Although popularised by Aldous Huxley's The Devils of Loudun, the story has never been told in its entirety. Robert Rapley provides a compelling new interpretation of the case, revealing startling evidence of a secret conspiracy to destroy the priest that went…
A History of the British Isles
The Witch in History
Diane Purkiss. The Witch in History: Early Modern and Twentieth-Century Representations. London and New York: Routledge, 1996. viii + 296 pp. 17.95 (pap). ISBN: 0-415-08761-9. - Gerhild Scholz Williams. Defining Dominion: The Discourses of Magic and Witchcraft in Early Modern France and Germany. (Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Civilization.) Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1995. xii + 234 pp. $39.50. ISBN: 0-472-10619-8. - Volume 5…
Francis Bacon
Journal Article Francis Bacon Get access Coquillette Daniel R., Francis Bacon. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1992. x, 358 pp. $39.50. Brian P. Levack Brian P. Levack University of Texas at Austin Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar American Journal of Legal History, Volume 39, Issue 1, January 1995, Pages 112–113, https://doi.org/10.2307/845763 Published: 01 January 1995
An Ordered Society
The Jacobean Union
The Night Battles
The Witches' Advocate
Journal Article The Witches' Advocate: Basque Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition (1609–1614) and Enemies of God: The Witch-hunt in Scotland Get access Henningsen Gustav, The Witches' Advocate: Basque Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition (1609–1614). Basque Series. Reno, Nev.: University of Nevada Press, 1980. xxxii, 607 pp. $24.00.Larner Christina, Enemies of God: The Witch-hunt in Scotland. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 19…
The Magician, the Witch and the Law
Journal Article The Magician, the Witch and the Law Get access Peters Edward, The Magician, the Witch and the Law. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1978. xviii, 218 pp. $15.95. Brian P. Levack Brian P. Levack Associate Professor of History University of Texas at Austin Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar American Journal of Legal History, Volume 25, Issue 4, October 1981, Pages 361…
The Great Scottish Witch Hunt of 1661–1662
During 1661 and 1662 Scotland experienced one of the largest witch hunts in its history. Within the space of sixteen months no fewer than 660 persons were publicly accused of various acts of sorcery and diabolism. The hunt began to the east of Edinburgh in the villages and small burghs of Midlothian and East Lothian, where 206 individuals were named as witches between April and December 1661. The hunt did not remain restricted to that area, howev…
Doctors' Commons
Politics and the Bench
Politics and the Bench: The Judges and the Origins of the English Civil War Jones W. J. , Politics and the Bench: The Judges and the Origins of the English Civil War. New York, Barnes and Noble, 1971. x, 228 pp. $10.50. Brian P. Levack Brian P. Levack Assistant Professor Department of History, University of Texas at Austin Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar American Journal of Legal History, Volume 17, Issue …
The Prosecution of Sexual Crimes in Early Eighteenth-Century Scotland
A session of the north circuit held at Perth on 20 May 1709 marked a turning point in the prosecution of sexual crimes in Scotland and a significant change in the administration of Scottish criminal justice. By pardoning more than 300 men and women charged with fornication and adultery, the court brought about the de facto decriminalisation of those crimes in the Scottish secular courts. An incest trial held before the court the same day revealed…
The Great Scottish Witch Hunt of 1661–1662
During 1661 and 1662 Scotland experienced one of the largest witch hunts in its history. Within the space of sixteen months no fewer than 660 persons were publicly accused of various acts of sorcery and diabolism. The hunt began to the east of Edinburgh in the villages and small burghs of Midlothian and East Lothian, where 206 individuals were named as witches between April and December 1661. The hunt did not remain restricted to that area, howev…
The Crisis of Parliaments
Political, social, and economic factors are integrated in this book, the two themes of which are the political and constitutional effects of rapid inflation and the difficulties caused by the universal desire to achieve and enforce religion in a theologically divided country.
Politics and the Bench
Politics and the Bench: The Judges and the Origins of the English Civil War Jones W. J. , Politics and the Bench: The Judges and the Origins of the English Civil War. New York, Barnes and Noble, 1971. x, 228 pp. $10.50. Brian P. Levack Brian P. Levack Assistant Professor Department of History, University of Texas at Austin Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar American Journal of Legal History, Volume 17, Issue …
Doctors' Commons
The Great Scottish Witch Hunt of 1661–1662
During 1661 and 1662 Scotland experienced one of the largest witch hunts in its history. Within the space of sixteen months no fewer than 660 persons were publicly accused of various acts of sorcery and diabolism. The hunt began to the east of Edinburgh in the villages and small burghs of Midlothian and East Lothian, where 206 individuals were named as witches between April and December 1661. The hunt did not remain restricted to that area, howev…
The Magician, the Witch and the Law
Journal Article The Magician, the Witch and the Law Get access Peters Edward, The Magician, the Witch and the Law. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1978. xviii, 218 pp. $15.95. Brian P. Levack Brian P. Levack Associate Professor of History University of Texas at Austin Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar American Journal of Legal History, Volume 25, Issue 4, October 1981, Pages 361…
The Witches' Advocate
Journal Article The Witches' Advocate: Basque Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition (1609–1614) and Enemies of God: The Witch-hunt in Scotland Get access Henningsen Gustav, The Witches' Advocate: Basque Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition (1609–1614). Basque Series. Reno, Nev.: University of Nevada Press, 1980. xxxii, 607 pp. $24.00.Larner Christina, Enemies of God: The Witch-hunt in Scotland. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 19…
The Night Battles
The Jacobean Union
An Ordered Society
Francis Bacon
Journal Article Francis Bacon Get access Coquillette Daniel R., Francis Bacon. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1992. x, 358 pp. $39.50. Brian P. Levack Brian P. Levack University of Texas at Austin Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar American Journal of Legal History, Volume 39, Issue 1, January 1995, Pages 112–113, https://doi.org/10.2307/845763 Published: 01 January 1995
A History of the British Isles
The Witch in History
Diane Purkiss. The Witch in History: Early Modern and Twentieth-Century Representations. London and New York: Routledge, 1996. viii + 296 pp. 17.95 (pap). ISBN: 0-415-08761-9. - Gerhild Scholz Williams. Defining Dominion: The Discourses of Magic and Witchcraft in Early Modern France and Germany. (Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Civilization.) Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1995. xii + 234 pp. $39.50. ISBN: 0-472-10619-8. - Volume 5…
A Case of Witchcraft
An extraordinary tale of passion, intrigue, and revenge, A Case of Witchcraft is the true story of Urbain Grandier, a seventeenth-century priest who was accused and found guilty of sorcery. Although popularised by Aldous Huxley's The Devils of Loudun, the story has never been told in its entirety. Robert Rapley provides a compelling new interpretation of the case, revealing startling evidence of a secret conspiracy to destroy the priest that went…
Nicholls, The Jacobean Union
The West, Encounters and Transformations
The Prosecution of Sexual Crimes in Early Eighteenth-Century Scotland
A session of the north circuit held at Perth on 20 May 1709 marked a turning point in the prosecution of sexual crimes in Scotland and a significant change in the administration of Scottish criminal justice. By pardoning more than 300 men and women charged with fornication and adultery, the court brought about the de facto decriminalisation of those crimes in the Scottish secular courts. An incest trial held before the court the same day revealed…
Devil Within
The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America
The scholarly study of the history of witchcraft, which began with the publication of Wilhelm Soldan’s study of witch trials in the mid-nineteenth century, continues to grow at a furious pace and shows no signs of abating. This book aims to summarize the current state of knowledge in the field; identify the most important historical literature that has been produced on the subject, to discuss the different ways scholars have approached the subjec…
Witchcraft in the Modern World
The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe
Between 1450 and 1750 thousands of people – most of them women – were accused, prosecuted and executed for the crime of witchcraft. The witch-hunt was not a single event; it comprised thousands of individual prosecutions, each shaped by the religious and social dimensions of the particular area as well as political and legal factors. Brian Levack sorts through the proliferation of theories to provide a coherent introduction to the subject, as wel…
The Devil Within
Levack, Brian P. The Devil Within: Possession and Exorcism in the Christian West. An article from journal Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme (Volume 36, Number 3, Summer 2013, pp. 5-200), on Érudit
Between the Devil and the Host
Michael Ostling’s splendid study of witchcraft in early modern Poland (the first book on the subject in English) fills a wide gap in the rapidly growing field of witchcraft studies. Ostling’s achievement is two-fold. In Part I, entitled ‘History’, he provides an illuminating analysis of Polish witchcraft prosecutions, in which he constructs a social profile of the accused, establishes the grounds for suspicion and formal accusation, charts the ch…
The First Wave of Trials for Diabolical Witchcraft
This article discusses the first wave of trials for diabolical witchcraft. It suggests that when we examine the trials in a particular region, and when we read late medieval writings about witchcraft, we find that ideas were brought together in discernible but fragile coalescence, then sometimes diffused over broader areas, and in the process fused with ideas taken from different sources; and when we look back at the cluster which was once formed…
Writing and Editing Texts for the 21st Century Classroom
The Horrors of Witchcraft and Demonic Possession
One of the deepest horrors experienced by people in early modern Europe occurred as they read accounts or viewed images of the witches sabbath. These imagined assemblies, which were believed to have involved cannibalistic infanticide and other practices that challenged the moral and social order, evoked an existential horror that the Devil and his human accomplices threatened to destroy Christianity and Christian civilization. As belief in the wi…
History (19 works) · History (13 works) · Political science (12 works) · Art (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity (10 works) · Law (7 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Witch (6 works)