Trafficking with Demons

Martha Rampton is Professor Emerita of History at Pacific University. She is the editor of European Magic and Witchcraft.

• IntroductionPart 1: Studying Magic1. Magic and Its Sources in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages2. Demons of the Lower AirPart 2: Breaking In: Christianity in Classical Rome3. Ritual, Demons, and Sacred Space4. A Thousand Vacuous Observances5. Maleficium and Traffic with the Dead6. Screech Owl, Vampire, Moon, and Women's MagicPart 3: Traffic with Demons: Post-Roman Europe7. Sub Dio8. Victimless Magic and Execrable Remedies9. The Awesome Power of the Women's CraftPart 4: Skepticism: The Carolingian Era10. Demonization of the Natural World11. Superstition and Divination Questioned12. Women's Magic Challenged13. Magic, Women, and the Carolingian Court14. Magic and Materia Medica15. Conclusion

This is a monumental work. I found the book fascinating, enjoyable to read and full of interesting detail. It raises important questions about these relationships in subsequent European historym and it will be essential reading for gender studies courses and scholars of medieval religion and witchcraft.(Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association) In Trafficking with Demons, Rampton has set out to challenge established scholarly views on the role of women in ritual magic during the first millennium... In refocusing our attention on the relationship between ritual and authority, and between authority and gender, Rampton's study offers an important new contribution to our understanding of elite Church views of magic during the first millennium.(Journal of Religious History) A comprehensive study of the changes and continuities that magic—and its gendered and ritual associations—underwent from early Christianity through to the Carolingian period... This is an extremely valuable study, and will in particular appeal to scholars and students entering into and seeking a foothold within the study of early Christian and early medieval magic.(Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural) Rampton's book is an ambitious project, attempting to cover a millennium of historical, social, and political contexts. While the book covers a broad span of time and geographical area, it helps the reader understand how views on magic changed drastically depending on where and when magic was discussed. It fills a gap in scholarship and does so in a way that engages the reader and highlights the depth of the research presented.(Cerae: An Australasian Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies) This book will serve as a stimulus to careful rethinking about a period in the history of magic that deserves more attention than it has sometimes been given.(Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies)