Instruction and Class Guides

History of Magic, Witchcraft, and Sorcery

• Subject Headings.
• Dictionaries and Encyclopedias.
• Indexes, Abstracts, and Full Text Sources.
• Bibliographies.
• Internet Sources.
• Additional Links.

Subject Headings.

To locate books or other materials held in the Boston University Libraries on a particular topic, you will need to do a subject or keyword search in the online Catalog. Relevant subjects for books may include but are not limited to:

alchemy
magic
witchcraft

Dictionaries and Encyclopedias.

Dictionary of the Middle Ages. 13 vols. 1982 - .
Contains 5,000 signed articles on all aspects of medieval scholarship, covering 500 CE to 1500. Use the index volume (volume 13) to locate articles on alchemy, demons, magic, sorcery, and witchcraft. Mugar Ref. X D114 D5 1982.

Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology. 4 vols. 1996.
Ranging from Wild Yam Question to Mead-Freeman Controversy, the 340 in-depth articles in this work cover the methods, perspectives and concepts of cultural anthropology. See the articles on magic, sorcery and witchcraft, and taboo. Mugar GN307 E 52 1996.

The Encyclopedia of Religion. 15 vols. 2005.
Comprehensive and authoritative articles on "important ideas, beliefs, rituals, myths, symbols, and persons that have played a role in the universal history of religions from Paleolithic times to the present day."Mugar Ref. X BL31 E46 2005.

Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology. 1996.
Contains more than 230 substantive entries on ideas, individuals and sub-disciplines in social and cultural anthropology, brief biographies of 250+ leading figures in the history of anthropology, and a glossary of more than 600 key terms. See the entries for magic and sorcery. Mugar GN307 E648 1996.

Encyclopedia of Taboos. 2000.
Guide to taboos, examining their meaning, use, and importance in economics, politics, religion, and society. Mugar Ref. X GN471.4 H65 2000.

Encyclopedia of the Renaissance. 6 vols. 1999.
Contains 1200+ articles on the cultural movement and period of history (approx. 1350 to the seventeenth century) known as the Renaissance. See articles on alchemy, magic and astrology, and witchcraft. Mugar Ref. X CB361 E52 1999.

The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft. 1989.
Provides "information pertaining to the evolution of witchcraft in Western civilization; its history, beliefs, practices, and adherents." Mugar Ref. X BF1566 G85 1989.

History of Science and Religion in the Western Tradition: An Encyclopedia. 2000.
"Comprehensive survey of the historical relationship of the Western religious traditions to science, from the Greeks of the fifth century before Christ to the late twentieth century." The last section describes alchemy, magic, the occult, and related topics. Mugar BL245 H57 2000. Storage: Use Request Form.

Man, Myth and Magic: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Supernatural. 24 vols. 1970.
Interdisciplinary, profusely illustrated work covering magic and related topics, spanning prehistory to the present time. Mugar BF1407 M25 1970. Storage: Use Request Form.

Indexes, Abstracts, and Full Text Sources.

Africa-Wide: NiPAD. 19th century -. (BU-px).
"An exclusive combination of files from Africa, Europe and the USA together for the first time. This database aggregation gives premier information on all aspects of Africa. Topics covered include politics, history, economics, business, mining, natural sciences, environment, development, social issues, anthropology, literature, language, law, music, tourism and much more. Sources include books, periodicals and magazines articles, radio and television broadcasts, newspapers, pamphlets, maps, reports, theses and music recordings and much more."

America: History and Life. 1964 - . (BU-px).
Indexes and abstracts periodical articles and dissertations in the field of North American history, prehistory, and culture. Look here for articles on witchcraft in colonial America.

Anthropological Index. 1957 - . (BU-px).
"The Anthropological Index Online is based on the journal holdings of The Anthropology Library at the British Museum (formerly Museum of Mankind) which receives periodicals in all branches of anthropology, from academic institutions and publishers around the world."

Anthropological Literature. Late 19th century to the present. (ChRiv-px).
Comprehensive international index to articles and essays on anthropology and archaeology, including art history, demography, economics, psychology, and religious studies. Updated quarterly, Anthropological Literature indexes articles two or more pages long in works published in English and other European languages from the late 19th century to the present.

Arts and Humanities Citation Index. 1975 - . (BU-px).
Provides author, subject and citation access to the literature in folklore, history, and religion.

ATLA Religion Database. 1949 - . (BU-px).
Indexes religion periodicals, essays in books and dissertations in religion and related fields.

Bibliography of Asian Studies. (ChRiv).
The Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS) contains more than 545,000 records on all subjects (especially humanities and social sciences) pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia published worldwide from 1971 to the present. 

Cornell University Library Witchcraft Collection.                                                                                                      "Cornell's Witchcraft Collection contains over 3,000 titles documenting the history of the Inquisition and the persecution of witchcraft. A rich source for students and scholars of the history of superstition and witchcraft persecution in Europe, it documents the earliest and the latest manifestations of the belief in witchcraft as well as its geographical boundaries, and elaborates this history with works on canon law, the Inquisition, torture, demonology, trial testimony, and narratives."  Many titles are available full-text, and are searchable and browsable.

Early English Books Online. (ChRiv-px).
"From the first book published in English through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare, this incomparable collection now contains about 100,000 of over 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640) and Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700) and their revised editions, as well as the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661) collection and the Early English Books Tract Supplement."

Eighteenth Century Collections Online. (BU-px)
"Digital edition of The Eighteenth Century, the world's largest library of the printed book on microfilm. Nearly 150,000 English-language titles and editions published between 1701 and 1800 will be made available online over the course of the next two years. When complete, the product will allow full-text searching of more than 33 million pages of material, in essence, every significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in the United Kingdom, along with thousands of important works from the Americas."

Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index. 1994 - .
Database covering journal articles (from 500+ journals), book reviews, and essays in books about women, sexuality, and gender during the Middle Ages (450-1500 CE, with Russia extending to 1613). Geographic coverage includes Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Language coverage includes English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. The database currently contains more than 11,000 records.

FRANCIS. 1984 - . (ChRiv-px).
Multilingual, multidisciplinary index to journals in the humanities and social sciences.

Historical Abstracts. 1969 - . (BU-px).
Indexes and abstracts periodical literature and dissertations on world history (excluding the U.S. and Canada) from 1450 to the present.

International Medieval Bibliography. 1967 - . (ChRiv-px).
Index to journal articles in medieval studies, arranged by subject.

JSTOR. (BU-px).
Archive of  scholarly journals in electronic format, digitized from the first issue onward to a "moving wall" of two to five years ago.

MLA International Bibliography. 1926 - . (BU-px)
International index to journals, series, monographs, working papers, bibliographies and dissertations on modern languages, literature, linguistics and folklore.

Project Muse. (BU-px).
Provides access to the full text of over 100 scholarly journals in the arts and humanities, social sciences and mathematics. Includes journals in medieval studies. Coverage varies for each journal.

Studies on Women and Gender Abstracts. 1995 - . (ChRiv)
Indexes and abstracts journal articles, chapters, and books on women. The focus is on "education, employment, women in the family and community, medicine and health, female sex and gender role socialisation, social policy, the social psychology of women, female culture, media treatment of women, biography, literary criticism, and historical studies."

Women Writers Online. (ChRiv-px).
A full text database of pre-Victorian women's writing in English. Covering the period 1400-1850, WWO includes fiction, poetry, and drama, as well as writings in religion and philosophy, history and politics, science and medicine.

Women's Studies International. 1972 - . (BU-px).
Contains citations or citations/abstracts from ten women's studies databases.

Bibliographies.

Alchemy, A Bibliography of English-Language Writings. 1980.
Mugar Ref. X Z5524 A35 P75.

Bibliography for the Study of Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion.

Magic, Witchcraft, and Paganism in America: A Bibliography. 2nd. ed. 1992.
Mugar Z6878 M3 M44 1992. Storage: Use Request Form

Internet Sources.

The Alchemy Web.
"Divided into over 2400 sections and providing tens of thousands of pages of text, over 2500 images, over 240 complete alchemical texts, extensive bibliographical material on the printed books and manuscripts, numerous articles, introductory and general reference material on alchemy."

Catholic Encyclopedia. 1913.
Online version of the classic 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia, which covers topics both religious and secular.

Internet Ancient History Sourcebook.

ORB: The Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies.
"ORB is an academic site, written and maintained by medieval scholars for the benefit of their fellow instructors and serious students. All articles have been judged by at least two peer reviewers. Authors are held to high standards of accuracy, currency, and relevance to the field of medieval studies." Includes an encyclopedia and full-text textbook library and more.

Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project.
"An electronic collection of primary source materials relating to the Salem witch trials of 1692 and a new transcription of the court records."

Additional Links.

Anthropology Research Guide

Classical Studies Research Guide

General Religion Research Guide

Selected Library Resources on the Middle Ages

J. Christina Smith