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The Discoverie of Witchcraft — Reginald Scot

The Discoverie of Witchcraft

Reginald Scot

  • Essays
  • Book language: English
  • 803 pages

The Discoverie of Witchcraft is a 1584 essayistic treatise by Reginald Scot. It argues that accusations of witchcraft often rested on superstition, fraud, and cruelty, and that the accused were generally deluded rather than powerful. It remains valuable as an early skeptical voice and a window into Elizabethan debates about magic.

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Cover of the original edition (Project Gutenberg, public domain).

Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.

Opening of the book

THE DISCOVERIE
OF
WITCHCRAFT
BY
REGINALD SCOT, EǪǟǼƗǡŧ
BEING A REPRINT OF THE FIRST EDITION
PUBLISHED IN 1584
Edited
WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES, GLOSSARY, AND INTRODUCTION
BY
BRINSLEY NICHOLSON, M.D.
DEPUTY INSPECTOR GENERAL
LONDON
ELLIOT STOCK, 62 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
1886

This edition of SCOT’S DISCOVERIE consists
of 250 copies only .- E. S.
DR. NICHOLSON’S SUBSCRIBERS.
THE ROYAL LIBRARY, WINDSOR CASTLE.
W. ALDIS WRIGHT, LL.D., Cambridge.
FABYAN AMERY, Esq., Ashburton.
J. E. BAILEY, Esq., Stratford, Manchester.
W. W. BAYNES, Esq., London.
ERNEST BLACKER, Esq., Midsomer Norton.
D. BRODIE, Esq., Canterbury.
A. H. BULLEN, Esq., West Hampstead.
Miss BURSILL, London.
J. PATTERSON CASSELLS, M.D., Glasgow.
Prof. CHRYSTAL, Edinburgh.
Sir ANDREW CLARK, Bart., M.D., LL.D., etc., London.
The Lord Chief Justice COLERIDGE, London.
C. W. SHIRLEY DEAKIN, Esq., Allahabad.
К. DEIGHTON, Esq., Agra.
EDW. DENHAM, Esq., New Bedford, U.S.A.
The Right Hon. the EARL OF DERBY, Knowsley Hall.
The DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE, Devonshire House.
R. DILL, M.D., Brighton.
Dr. J. MATTHEWS DUNCAN, A.M., F.R.S., etc., London.
Mrs. D. P. EVANS, Clifton, Bristol.
P. F. SPARKE EVANS, Esq., Clifton, Bristol.
Prof. JOHN FERGUSON, Glasgow.
ALEX. FORSYTH, M.D., Greenwich.
FRANCIS F. FOX, J.P., Chipping Sodbury, Bristol.
Prof. T. R. FRASER, M.D., Edinburgh.

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Contents

  1. THE DISCOVERIE OF WITCHCRAFT
  2. PREFACE
  3. INTRODUCTION.
  4. The Epistle
  5. The summe of everie chapter conteined in the sixteene bookes of this discoverie, with the discourse of divels and spirit
  6. The first Booke.
  7. The second Booke.
  8. The third Booke.
  9. The fourth Booke.
  10. The fift Booke.
  11. The sixt Booke.
  12. The seventh Booke.
  13. The eight Booke.
  14. The ninth Booke.
  15. The tenth Booke.
  16. The eleventh Booke.
  17. The twelfe Booke.
  18. The xiii. Booke.
  19. The xiiii. Booke.
  20. The xv. Booke.
  21. The xvi. Booke.
  22. A Discourse upon divels and spirits, and first of philosophers opinions, also the maner of their reasoning hereupon; and
  23. Appendix I.
  24. Appendix II.
  25. SHAKESPEARE NOTINGS.
  26. MIDDLETON’S “WITCH”.
  27. EXTRACTS FROM WIER.
  28. GENERAL NOTINGS ON SCOT’S TEXT.
  29. GLOSSARY.
  30. THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG™ LICENSE

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