H. C. Erik Midelfort

In the process of cataloging my library here on LibraryThing, I ran across this book, which I've had for a long time. I re-read it. There's a lot of colourful anecdote in the book that makes it interesting reading, though the one map that's in the book looks like it was concocted on an Apple ][+. More maps would have helped, especially given the importance of the various rivalries going on at the time. I've also been reading "Lotharingia," which touches on the subject of a key chapter here (on the Duke of Cleves-Julich), which provides an interesting sidelight. The discussion of various medieval schools of medicine can get quite abstruse at times. The anecdotes, though, carry the book.… (more)

2180 Witch Hunting in Southwestern Germany 1562-1684: The Social and Intellectual Foundations, by H. C. Erik Midelfort (read 19 Jan 1989) This is a thorough study of witch trials in Baden and Wurttemburg from 1562 to 1684. It is not nearly as worthwhile a book as Servants of Satan: The Age of the Witch Hunts, by Joseph Klaits, which I read on 11 Oct 1986. My nine-times great grandmother was the defendant in a witch trial but she was not convicted, and her ordeal was minor compared to what is detailed in this book--but she was not in Baden or Wurttemberg. One wonders why the witch craze is scarcely mentioned in history survey books.… (more)