My rating at Goodreads: 5 of 5 stars
This is a very scholarly book of about 1000 pages, but don’t let that put you off. Granted, it’s not the sort of light entertainment that can justify cover to cover reading, but rather is split into many very enticing chapters which are written in an easy to read style. It is also punctuated by contemporary pictures which help the text along.
It looks at sixteenth and seventeenth century England with such delightful chapter headings as magic and the medieval church, magical healing,cunning men and popular magic, ancient prophesies and astrological practices. There is a whole section on witches and their craft, with allied beliefs such as ghosts, fairies and omens. And finally you get to the core as to why magic declined....
“the virtuosi who dabbled in magic or alchemy had come to appear increasingly cranky to their scientific colleagues” as the seventeenth century progressed.
In addition, as Hilary Mantel says in her introduction “it is a treasure house stuffed from cellar to attic with the quotable and the remarkable.”
This book really should be part of everyone’s library, to be opened and savoured from time to time.
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P J Cadavori's Catacombs of the Damned book and e-book is available at Amazon:
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