Reginald Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft (magical texts)

Reginald Scot, a Kentish gentleman, published The Discoverie of Witchcraft in 1584 as a sceptical attack on witch prosecutions. He argued that most accusations rested on the delusions of the accused, the malice of neighbours and the frauds of conjurers and priests, and he set out to expose those frauds by printing the charms and conjurations themselves. As a result the book, intended to debunk magic, became one of the main channels by which grimoire material reached English readers. The archive's selection gathers these magical passages: Catholic and folk charms against theft, toothache, falling sickness and the ailments of horses; remedies for bewitched impotence; witches' flying ointments and dream divination; and, in the fifteenth book, an English version of Johann Weyer's catalogue of demons together with experiments for calling spirits such as Sibylia into crystals. Scot's English list of spirits is one of the routes by which the Goetic catalogue entered English manuscripts. The 1665 edition added an anonymous Discourse concerning devils and spirits and new chapters with circles, the raising of a suicide's ghost and the conjuring of named spirits, which ironically turned Scot's sceptical work into a more practical magic book. King James VI wrote his Daemonologie partly in response to Scot. Philip Almond's 2011 study is the standard modern account of Scot's life, arguments and influence on English debates about witchcraft and magic.

What it contains

• Folk and Catholic charms and amulets
• Remedies against bewitched impotence
• Witches' ointments and dream divination
• English version of Weyer's catalogue of demons
• Experiments for enclosing spirits in crystals
• 1665 additions on circles, ghosts and spirit conjuration