The Enchanted World: Magic, Angels, and Demons in Early Modern Europe

European fascination with the unseen world reached its highpoint alongside the Renaissance, Reformation, Scientific Revolution,and Enlightenment. Between 1500 and 1800, theologians, natural philosopher, princes, and peasants devoted enormous energy to understanding, communicating with, and eliminating a host of ethereal creatures, including ghosts, angels, demons, vampires, nature spirits, and witches. Some also sought to access the praeternatural powers that these creatures seemed to command. This course explores the intellectual, social, political, and religious origins of the interest in this unseen world, the structures Europeans created to grapple with it, as well as the factors that ultimately led to its demise.