RELIGION AND THE DECLINE OF MAGIC Studies In Popular Beliefs In Sixteenth And Seventeenth-Century England by Sir Keith Thomas

Published by the Folio Society, London, 2012. First Illustrated Edition, Two Volumes in Slipcase, hardbound in blue cloth with gilt printing on the front cover and spine, 10" x 6.5", 992 total pages, beautifully illustrated with 42 pages of color plates. FINE Condition: tight, bright, clean and unmarked, as new. Shrink wrap partially removed from slipcase which has a few light shipping dings to the front edge.

Sir Keith Thomas's magnum opus is the foundational text for the study of early modern witchcraft during the English Renaissance. A monumental historical monograph that examines the complicated relationship between the supernatural and christianity. In the beginning of the 1500s magic pervaded society. Religious faith, prayer and prophecies were magical. Outside the church magical power reigned in the healing arts, in astrology and alchemy, in the knowledge that ghosts, fairies, omens, spirits, and the devil exist, and in the obsession with witchcraft. Nothing happened by accident. Evil had to be willed. The air was full of demons who controlled everything, easily summoned by a malevolent witch. But by the time Sir Isaac Newton dropped that gravitational apple science was ascendant and most of the witches had been burned.