This collection attempts to set preeminent German Renaissance artist Albrecht DÜ rer (1471-1528) in the cultural context of the early sixteenth century. It offers analyses of and suggests relationships between DÜ rer's work and aspects of his culture that have not received much attention in previous scholarship. These include views of nature and attitudes to collecting, patriotism and morality, witchcraft and the rituals of courtship, the power of visual images and the role of censorship.

This collection of sixteen essays deals with the role of magic, religion and witchcraft in European culture, 1450-1650, and the critical role of the visual in that culture. It covers the relationship of humanism and magic; the intersection of religious ritual, orthodoxy and power; the discursive links between the visual language of witchcraft and contemporary anxieties about sexuality and savagery. The introductory chapter urges us to exorcise our tendency to reduce historical experiences of the demonic to forms of unreason created in a distant past. Only then can we understand the role of...

Exploring how visual representations of witchcraft contributed to the widespread acceptance of witch beliefs in 16th century Europe and helped establish the preconditions for the widespread persecution of witches, this book argues that artists and printers used images to relate witchcraft theories.

"Feeling Exclusion investigates the emotional experience of exclusion at the heart of the religious life of persecuted and exiled individuals and communities in early modern Europe"--