What role has magic played in society through the ages? How has it been practiced and, at times, controlled? How has magic been understood and represented? And how has this understanding differed according to time and place?
In a work that spans 2,500 years these ambitious questions are addressed by 57 experts, each contributing their overview of a theme applied to a period in history. With the help of a broad range of case material they illustrate broad trends and nuances of the culture of magic across the world from antiquity to the present, albeit with an emphasis on western traditions. Individual volume editors ensure the cohesion of the whole, and to make it as easy as possible to use, chapter titles are identical across each of the volumes. This gives the choice of reading about a specific period in one of the volumes, or following a theme across history by reading the relevant chapter in each of the six.
The six volumes cover: 1. Antiquity (500 BCE to 800 CE); 2. Medieval Age (800 to 1450); 3. The Renaissance (1450 to 1650); 4. Age of Enlightenment (1650 to 1800); 5. Age of Empire (1800 to 1920); 6. Modern Age (1920 to the present).
Themes (and chapter titles) are: defining magic; magic, religion, and belief; practices and practitioners; authorities and control; geographies of magic; magic and material culture; magic and gender; imagining magic.
The page extent for the pack is approximately 1630pp. Each volume opens with notes on contributors and an introduction and concludes with notes, bibliography, and an index.
The Cultural Histories Series A Cultural History of Magic is part of The Cultural Histories Series. Titles are available both as printed hardcover sets for libraries needing just one subject or preferring a one-off purchase and tangible reference for their shelves, or as part of a fully-searchable digital library available to institutions by annual subscription or on perpetual access (see www.bloomsburyculturalhistory.com).
