Table of Contents

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Investigating the Affair of the Poisons, 1676–1682

2. Medea and the Marquise: Understanding the Crime of Poison in Seventeenth-Century France

3. The Criminal Magical Underworld of Paris

4. The Renegade Priests of Paris and the Amatory Mass

5. The Magic of Mistresses at the Court of Louis XIV

Conclusion: The End of Magic?

Notes

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Lynn Wood Mollenauer is Assistant Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

Reviews

“Strange Revelations effectively explores the multiple ways in which power was exercised at the court of Louis XIV, focusing on the ‘hidden forms’ effected through poison and magic. Mollenauer does an excellent job of probing these issues through close analysis of the records left to us concerning the ‘Affair of the Poisons.'”—James R. Farr, Purdue University

“The latest in the distinguished Magic in History series of the Pennsylvania State University Press, Lynn Wood Mollenauer’s Strange Revelations: Magic, Poison, and Sacrilege in Louis XIV’s France (2007) is a well-researched and convincing introduction to and nearly definitive book on the subject. This paradoxical fact results from the lack of further sources for research: thus Mollenauer has done just about all that can be done on poisoning and black magic in late seventeenth-century Paris.”—Orest Ranum H-France Book Reviews

“This book is a worthy contribution to the Magic in History Series: in fact, it is spellbinding.”—Camille Weiss Renaissance Quarterly

“It is well researched and an enjoyable read. Undergraduate students should digest it without resistance, and teachers can find much in it to provoke discussion, including but not limited to the obvious evidentiary problem. It should be on everyone’s reading list.”—John J. Hunt Journal of Church and State

“For anyone with an interest in the history of magic, Strange Revelations contains fascinating revelations indeed.”—Jeffrey Freedman Church History

“This intelligent and well-written study deserves a wide readership among historians in general and is accessible enough for undergraduate students as well the literate public.”—Malcolm Greenshields Catholic Historical Review