Date of Award

Summer 2025

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Department

History

First Advisor

Kathryn A. Edwards

Abstract

Originating in the print stands of seventeenth-century London, the Athenian Mercury enjoyed a nearly miraculous seven-year run time as the most well-known and successful anonymous question and answer periodical of its time. Conceptualized and produced by bookseller John Dunton, the Mercury existed as an interface for intellectual discourse readily accessible to men and women. Kept entirely anonymous on the part of the author and reader, the intellectually curious could write questions to the Mercury and receive answers in turn on a vast variety of subjects twice a week. Aside from the more expected queries on science, love, mathematics, and religion, there were a substantial number of questions published on the nature of magic and the abilities of witches. None of these questions, or their answers, have been analyzed in depth by historians of magic despite the unique insights into popular understandings of service magic and witchcraft that they provide. Scholarly focus on the intellectual writings of magic have relegated sources like the Athenian Mercury understudied because they straddle the distance between intellectual and popular culture. Many times, historians of magic choose to focus on either theoretical or service magic alone, inadvertently ignoring or downplaying the crossovers. By rejoining service magic, astrologers, and witches via the Athenian Mercury, historians of English witchcraft and magic will better understand the flow of information between intellectual theorists and popular conceptions of magic, thereby regaining perspective on the ever-present interconnectional relationship between intellectual and lay knowledge. Particularly, through a thorough analysis of questions on magic and witchcraft, the Athenian Mercury can reveal how belief in diabolism was integrated into service magicians, astrologers, and witches in the minds of the authors and readers of this periodical.

Rights

© 2025, Lauren Rebecca Rowe

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