La Sorcière (Michelet)
La sorcière ( The Witch ) is a book on the history of witchcraft by the French historian and romantic writer Jules Michelet (1798–1874), who held the chair of history at the Collège de France . It was first published in 1862.
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In the first part the author provides a highly romantic replica of various witch lives. The second part contains a story of witchcraft and demonic possession . Michelet discussed several cases, including Louis Gaufridi and the Ursuline Sisters of Aix-en-Provence , Urban Grandier and the Devils of Loudun , Madeleine Bavent and the possessed of Louviers . Michelet argues that the practice of witchcraft would be a form of social rebellion against feudal oppression and the Roman Catholic Church . He regards sorcery as an uprising of human nature against the horrors and oppression of the Middle Ages . The participants of the secret religion meet regularly for the Witches' Sabbath and black masses . Michelet's report shows compassion for the suffering of peasants and women in the Middle Ages. Michelet formulates at the end of the book:
“Tout l'objet de mon livre était de donner, non une histoire de la sorcellerie, mais une formule simple et forte de la vie de la sorcière, que mes savants devanciers obscurcissent par la science même et l'excès des détails. Ma force est de partir, non du diable, d'une creuse entité, mais d'une réalité vivante, la Sorcière, réalité chaude et féconde. L'Église n'avait que les demons. Elle n'arrivait pas à Satan. C'est le rêve de la Sorcière. / Dt. The whole purpose of my book was to provide no history of witchcraft, but a simple and powerful formula of life of the witch what my learned predecessor by science and an excess have darkened in details. My strength is not to start from the devil, an empty entity, but from a living reality, the witch, a warm and fertile reality. The church only had the demons. She didn't make it to Satan. This is the witch's dream. "
The book appeared in German and English translation as early as 1863. It was later illustrated by Martin van Maële .
See also
References and comments
- ^ La Sorcière , 1862, p. 447
- ↑ Illustrations
literature
- Digital version of the 1862 edition ( main sources ; table of contents ) / PDF ( Les classiques des sciences sociales )
-
La Sorcière . Jules Chevrel, Paris 1911 (illustrated by Martin van Maële )
- The witch. Translated into German by R. Klose. Schaefer, Leipzig 1863 digitized .
- La Sorcière: The Witch of the Middle Ages , translated by LJ Trotter, "The only Authorized English Translation", London, 1863 Digitized
- Satanism and Witchcraft: A Study in Medieval Superstition. Transl. AR Allinson. Lyle Stuart / Citadel Press, 1939.
- Jules Michelet: The Witch. With a foreword by Roland Barthes and an essay by Georges Bataille . Edited by Traugott König (= Die Breach. Volume 3). Rogner and Bernhard, Munich 1974, ISBN 3-8077-0026-9 .
- Ulrich K. Dreikandt (Ed.): Black masses. Seals and documents. Originally published by Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich 1970
