Demons and Devils in Early Modern Europe

2 December 2011

A one-day conference organized by Guido Giglioni

In the course of his illustrious career at the Warburg Institute, D.P. Walker (1914-1985) published seminal works that contributed to redefining our view of early modern magic and demonology, such as Spiritual and Demonic Magic from Ficino to Campanella (1958), Decline of Hell (1964) and Unclean Spirits: Possession and Exorcism in France and England in the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries (1981). This conference intends to celebrate his legacy by presenting the most recent results by young researchers working at the Warburg Institute.

Programme

10.00 Doors open - Registration

10.15 Welcome

Péter Tóth
Satan's Terror and the Origins of Medieval Religious Comedy

11.00 Coffee

11.30 Anna Corrias
From Daimonic Reason to Demonic Imagination: Plotinus and Marsilio Ficino on the Soul’s Inner Demon

12.15 Nicholas Holland
Agostino Nifo’s Demons

1.00 Lunch in the Institute Common Room

2.00 Sietske Fransen
Injected Devils: Jan Baptista van Helmont on Devils and Disease

2.45 Michael Gordian
Diabolic Dis/simulation in Early Modern England: The Theatre of Exorcism in Context

3.30 Tea

4.00 James A. T. Lancaster
Francis Bacon, Experimentation and the Occult

4.45 Anthony Ossa-Richardson
Possession and Insanity: Two Views from the Victorian Lunatic Asylum

5.30 Close and reception

Click here to download the poster/programme