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bunnyjadwiga) wrote2008-10-14 01:57 pm
bunnyjadwiga) wrote2008-10-14 01:57 pm
Entry tags:
Docs for the Wicked Words: Witchcraft documents exhibit
Intro:
Wicked Words: Books from the George Fraser Black Witchcraft Collection
Pre-modern notions of witchcraft, and the witch persecutions that flourished from the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries, are a puzzle that is part and parcel of our culture. From the Halloween witches of October to the political and/or criminal “witch-hunt,” the idea of malicious and possibly devil-worshiping ‘witches’ is familiar to everyone. But long before “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” appeared on TV, historians were re-examining the history of witchcraft.
One place for historians to look is in the texts of the witch persecution era. Drew is fortunate to have the George Fraser Black Collection on Witchcraft, which includes a number of pre-seventeenth century printed works as well as a variety of other historical works on witchcraft. George Fraser Black, an early twentieth century librarian at the New York Public Library, researched a variety of topics, including the history of Scotland, the culture of the Romany [Gypsies], and a study of witchcraft history.
The collection, first donated to Fairleigh Dickinson University and transferred to Drew in 2001, is a representative sample of the research tools available to the late nineteenth and early twentieth century scholar. It predates the extensive distribution of primary source materials through microfiche and microfilm, as well as the appearance of digitized images and/or transcriptions of such sources online. While these items are often accessible as reprints or through library or other digital sites, such as Google Books, the visual experience of seeing the original volumes and early reprints helps to remind us in a tangible way of the history they represent.
George Fraser Black, 1865-1948
A lifelong librarian, Dr. Black emigrated from Scotland in 1896. He was on the staff of the New York Public Library and its predecessor, the Astor Library, from 1896 to 1931. His scholarly publications included bibliographies, reference works, handlists, and grammars; he was a frequent contributor to the Bulletin of the New York Public Library and the proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Though Black remains famous in onomastic circles for his monumental Surnames of Scotland, his interests branched out from Scottish history into gypsy lore, the history of witchcraft, and a variety of other folklore, historic, and linguistic areas.
While Dr. Black planned to write a history of witchcraft after he retired, this project was never completed. The witchcraft section of his scholarly library was eventually donated to Fairleigh Dickinson University, and passed from their keeping into Drew’s in 2001. The collection’s edition of the Malleus Malificarum was featured in a story in the Drew Magazine in 2007, and was studied by Professor Louis Hamilton’s First Year Seminar class in their study of the history of witchcraft.
Wicked Words: Books from the George Fraser Black Witchcraft Collection
Pre-modern notions of witchcraft, and the witch persecutions that flourished from the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries, are a puzzle that is part and parcel of our culture. From the Halloween witches of October to the political and/or criminal “witch-hunt,” the idea of malicious and possibly devil-worshiping ‘witches’ is familiar to everyone. But long before “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” appeared on TV, historians were re-examining the history of witchcraft.
One place for historians to look is in the texts of the witch persecution era. Drew is fortunate to have the George Fraser Black Collection on Witchcraft, which includes a number of pre-seventeenth century printed works as well as a variety of other historical works on witchcraft. George Fraser Black, an early twentieth century librarian at the New York Public Library, researched a variety of topics, including the history of Scotland, the culture of the Romany [Gypsies], and a study of witchcraft history.
The collection, first donated to Fairleigh Dickinson University and transferred to Drew in 2001, is a representative sample of the research tools available to the late nineteenth and early twentieth century scholar. It predates the extensive distribution of primary source materials through microfiche and microfilm, as well as the appearance of digitized images and/or transcriptions of such sources online. While these items are often accessible as reprints or through library or other digital sites, such as Google Books, the visual experience of seeing the original volumes and early reprints helps to remind us in a tangible way of the history they represent.
George Fraser Black, 1865-1948
A lifelong librarian, Dr. Black emigrated from Scotland in 1896. He was on the staff of the New York Public Library and its predecessor, the Astor Library, from 1896 to 1931. His scholarly publications included bibliographies, reference works, handlists, and grammars; he was a frequent contributor to the Bulletin of the New York Public Library and the proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Though Black remains famous in onomastic circles for his monumental Surnames of Scotland, his interests branched out from Scottish history into gypsy lore, the history of witchcraft, and a variety of other folklore, historic, and linguistic areas.
While Dr. Black planned to write a history of witchcraft after he retired, this project was never completed. The witchcraft section of his scholarly library was eventually donated to Fairleigh Dickinson University, and passed from their keeping into Drew’s in 2001. The collection’s edition of the Malleus Malificarum was featured in a story in the Drew Magazine in 2007, and was studied by Professor Louis Hamilton’s First Year Seminar class in their study of the history of witchcraft.