Belief in irrational supernatural causality

concept

A postcard illustrating a variety of good luck charms. Chromolithograph.

Folio 31 recto, Wellcome MS Persian 466.

A lady seeking knowledge of her lover from a wizard. Process print after Sir E. Burne-Jones.

The pains of gout could be eased by boiling rosemary leaves and tying them, wrapped in linen, round the afflicted members. Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, E. & M. Radford : 'Zyloric' Allopurinol.

A postcard wishing good luck illustrated by various lucky charms. Chromolithograph.

'Actifed' Compound Linctus.

A credulous congregation listening to a sermon by a fiery preacher. Engraving by T. Cook, 1798, after W. Hogarth.

The egg story : 6 / [British Egg Information Service].

Folio 41r, Wellcome MS Persian 466.

Satan's invisible world discovered, or, A choice collection of modern relations proving evidently, against the atheists of this present age, that there are devils. Spirits, witches, and apparitions, from authentic records, and attestations of witnesses of undoubted veracity : To which is added, the marvellous history of Major Weir and his sister, the witches of Bargarran, Pittenweem, Calder, &c / By Mr. George Sinclair.

Graeco-Roman phallic amulet

An ornate lucky charm in the form of a hand. Chromolithograph.

Comment on se soigne aujourd'hui : remèdes de bonne femme / par les Docteurs Cabanès et Barraud.

"We didn't know aught" : a study of sexuality, superstition and death in women's lives in Lincolnshire during the 1930s, '40s and '50s / Maureen Sutton ; [foreword by Morag McGill].

Sir Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia epidemica / edited by Robin Robbins.

El hechizado : medicina, alquimia y superstición en la corte de Carlos II (1661-1700) / Mar Rey Bueno.

La sorcellerie des campagnes / Charles Lancelin.

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Superstitions

Images from the collections

Images referencing Superstitions

Works from the collections

Comment on se soigne aujourd'hui : remèdes de bonne femme / par les Docteurs Cabanès et Barraud.

"We didn't know aught" : a study of sexuality, superstition and death in women's lives in Lincolnshire during the 1930s, '40s and '50s / Maureen Sutton ; [foreword by Morag McGill].

Sir Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia epidemica / edited by Robin Robbins.

El hechizado : medicina, alquimia y superstición en la corte de Carlos II (1661-1700) / Mar Rey Bueno.

La sorcellerie des campagnes / Charles Lancelin.

Superstitions

Images from the collections

Images referencing Superstitions

Works from the collections

Comment on se soigne aujourd'hui : remèdes de bonne femme / par les Docteurs Cabanès et Barraud.

"We didn't know aught" : a study of sexuality, superstition and death in women's lives in Lincolnshire during the 1930s, '40s and '50s / Maureen Sutton ; [foreword by Morag McGill].

Sir Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia epidemica / edited by Robin Robbins.

El hechizado : medicina, alquimia y superstición en la corte de Carlos II (1661-1700) / Mar Rey Bueno.

La sorcellerie des campagnes / Charles Lancelin.

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