Russian Magic in the British Library

Books, Manuscripts, Scholars and Travellers

Russian magic and folklore have been interpreted by a number of western scholars, notably W R S Ralston, a Keeper of the British Museum Library in the mid 19th century. His work is discussed in this latest addition to the Panizzi Lectures which also looks at travel literature and memoirs and examines both the merits and the problems of using this kind of material as a historical source for the study of popular belief.

The book also discusses the history of attitudes to magic and witchcraft in the Russian Church, and in particular Ivan the Terrible?s magical connections and ?The Hundred Chapters?, the record of the Synod he summoned in 1551 notable for the amount of attention it devotes to magic and witchcraft.