Suzi Feay

Learned necromancers and lascivious witches: magic and misogyny through the ages

While male magicians with their manuscript grimoires were respected for centuries throughout Europe, poor, illiterate women were demonised, says Owen Davies

‘Saul and the Witch of Endor’ by Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen (1526), showing a semi-naked crone consulting a volume held by a satyr, is typical of the misogyny of the age. [Getty Images]
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  • Art of the Grimoire: An Illustrated History of Magic Books and Spells

    Owen Davies

    Yale University Press, pp. 256, £25

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