New Books Display – Witchcraft and the Law
That chill in the air may be more than just changing seasons…
The Lillian Goldman Law Library invites you to visit our newest book display in the Class of 1964 Reading Room on L3, “Witchcraft and the Law.” This display highlights books that approach the law of witchcraft from a variety of angles, from Richard S. Ross’s Before Salem: Witch Hunting in the Connecticut River Valley, 1647-1663 (2017) to Christopher S. Mackay’s “An Unusual Inquisition”: Translated Documents from Heinricus Institoriss Witch Hunts in Ravensburg and Innsbruck (2020) [note to patrons: Heinricus Institoriss was the author of the infamous Malleus Maleficarum (“Hammer of Witches”), a treatise on witch-hunting]. Global perspectives are well represented in this display and include Gunnar W. Knutsen’s Servants of Satan and Masters of Demons: The Spanish Inquisition’s Trial for Superstition, Valencia and Barcelona, 1478-1700 (2009) and Liv Helene Willumsen’s The Voices of Women in Witchcraft Trials: Northern Europe (2022). Of course, there are also a number of titles about the Salem Witch Trials, including The Salem Witchcraft Papers (Paul Boyer & Stephen Nissenbaum eds., 1977). Looking for a comprehensive introduction to witchcraft? Try The Oxford Handbook Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America (Brian P. Levack ed., 2013), which is also available online (Yale VPN required).
If you don’t have much time for leisure reading but still want to get into the Halloween spirit, check out our DVD collection. Our horror titles include:
- The Vvitch: A New England Folktale (Lionsgate 2016)
- The Exorcism of Emily Rose (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2005).
- Anthony Shaffer’s The Wicker Man (Lionsgate 2009)
- Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment 2001)
- The Cabin in the Woods (Lions Gate Home Entertainment 2012)
You can find our film collection in front of the elevator on L1.
This book display was prepared by Nor Ortiz and Nicholas Mignanelli.
