Michael David Bailey - Magic and Superstition in Europe: A Concise History from Antiquity to the Present

This book owes its genesis to Donald Critchlow, who suggested that I write for what was then his series. My thanks go to him for his invitation, and to the editors and staff at Rowman and Littlefield for seeing the project through to completion. I was eager to write this book, since I had been teaching the history of European magic and witchcraft for several years, trying to develop a coherent general narrative that would make sense of the long history of magic and also trying to situate the development of magical beliefs and conceptions of superstition within the broader course of European history. For serving as unwitting preliminary audiences for many of my thoughts on these matters, I thank the students who took my seminars at the University of Cincinnati, Saint Louis University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Iowa State University. I began to write the book at the University of Pennsylvania, where I was a Mellon Fellow at the Penn Humanities Forum, and I largely completed the project with the help of a summer fellowship from the Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities at Iowa State University.

In the course of my work, a number of people have assisted me, directly or indirectly, and I must thank several former teachers, present colleagues, and friends. Richard Kieckhefer and William Monter will find many of their ideas about the history of magic and witchcraft reflected here, not simply because they taught me so well in my impressionable youth, but because a decade later, in my possibly more judicious middle age, I continue to find their arguments compelling. Bill also generously read large sections of the work in draft, which his comments and occasional corrections greatly improved. Robert Lerner helped shape my thought on superstition. More basically, he helped make me a historian, and my larger notions of the course of Western history owe much to him (even when my interpretations may differ from his). Edward Muir has also taught me a great deal, especially through his work on ritual. I am grateful for stimulating conversations with Ann Moyer and especially Edward Peters at the University of Pennsylvania. At Iowa State, my colleagues David Hollander, John Monroe, and Matt Stanley provided invaluable help by looking over sections of the manuscript that fell within their chronological areas of expertise.

Like most authors, I am fascinated by my subject. I am also fortunate enough to have in my life some dear friends who gently remind me that matters of magic and superstition can seem a bit esoteric. They were often in my thoughts as I completed this book intended to convey the historical scope and importance of magic to a broad audience. To whatever extent I have succeeded in achieving that goal, it is at least partly because of their inspiration.