The Occult and Court Politics in Russia and Central Europe, Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries

AHA Session 45
Conference Group for Central European History 1
Friday, January 7, 2011: 9:30 AM-11:30 AM
Dartmouth Room (Marriott Boston Copley Place)
Chair:
Serhii Plokhii, Harvard University
Papers:
The Politics of Alchemy in Reformation Germany
Tara Nummedal, Brown University
A Tale of Two Alchemical Courts: Rudolf II and Vilém of Rožmberk
Megan Renee Raphoon, University of Michigan
Prophecy, Politics, and Propaganda in Petrine Russia
Robert Collis, University of Sheffield
Comment:
Steven A. Usitalo, Northern State University

Session Abstract

Esoteric magic infamously played a role in Central European and Russian court life and politics throughout the early modern period. A new generation of scholars is reexamining the intersection of mysticism and politics, attempting to reconsider the meaning and impact of the occult on political leaders, policies, economic development, and high culture.

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