Covering a period of 2000 years, this book offers an interdisciplinary exploration of the devil's role in the Western tradition and draws from history, religion, art, literature, media studies, and anthropology to provide a multifaceted view of the devil over time.The Routledge History of the Devil in the Western Tradition examines topics such as the devil's scriptural origins, medieval development, and role in witch-hunting and possession cases, as well as the influence o...

This book explores the manifold ways of knowing—and knowing about— preternatural beings such as demons, angels, fairies, and other spirits that inhabited and were believed to act in early modern European worlds. Its contributors examine how people across the social spectrum assayed the various types of spiritual entities that they believed dwelled invisibly but meaningfully in the spaces just beyond (and occasionally within) the limits of human perception. Collectively, the volume demonstr...

The Medieval Devil is a unique collection of primary sources that examines the development of medieval society through the lens of how people perceived the devil. In exploring where and how Europeans discerned his presence, detected his machinations, and sought to counter his actions, readers will be afforded a new and important point of entry into medieval history.Each chapter begins with an introduction to familiarize readers with critical issues and to contextualize the...

The motto of the Royal Society—Nullius in verba—was intended to highlight the members’ rejection of received knowledge and the new place they afforded direct empirical evidence in their quest for genuine, useful knowledge about the world. But while many studies have raised questions about the construction, reception and authentication of knowledge, Evidence in the Age of the New Sciences is the first to examine the problem of evidence at this pivotal moment in European in...