Michelet Jules: Veštica

Jules Michelet: The Witch

In this controversial book, published as early as 1892, the author, one of the most famous French historiographers, presents a cross-section of the life of medieval society, largely marked by the Church and its repressive morality, through the presentation of the phenomenon of witch persecution and the closely related magic, witchcraft and inquisition. Basing his manuscript on historical documents, Michelet skilfully and argumentatively presents the history of the problem of attitudes towards women and their position in medieval and early medieval society in general. At the end of the book there is also a chapter on the persecution of witches in Croatia.

Jules Michelet was born in 1798 in Paris. There he attends school and works in his father's printing shop. After the brilliant completion of his studies, he teaches the history of the Middle Ages at the Ecole Normale. In 1827, he published a translation of Vick's Principles of the Philosophy of History. After being appointed director of the Historical Department of the National Archives (1831), he began to write the History of France, the first six volumes of which (from the beginnings of France to the death of Louis XI in 1483) were published from 1833 to 1844. After breaking with Catholicism, he presented his democratic and anti-clerical beliefs. In order to better understand the nature of the absolutist monarchy, he first studied the revolution, the history of which he published in seven volumes from 1847 to 1853. After being removed from all positions in 1851 due to his ideas, Michelet gave his last volumes of the History of France (from Louis XI to Louis XIV, 1483 - 1638), which he published in 1866 and 1867, a tone of political polemic. The Jesuits (1843) and The Priest (1845) provoked a real clerical campaign against him. The witch, also a polemical book, was published in 1862 by the Belgian publisher Hetzel, who also published the Flowers of Evil for him, after the former publisher Hachette got scared. He also publishes books of a different theme and style: scientific and poetic essays on the nature of Birds (1856), The Sea (1861), but he continues to express his attachment to the human race in the works Love (1852), Woman (1860), and his faith in the future in The Bible of Mankind (1864). For the second edition of the History of France (1869), he writes a large preface in which he presents his understanding of history. The first and second volumes of the History of the XIX. century were published in 1871 and 1873. He died in Paris in 1874. He left in manuscript the third volume of Povijesti XIX. century, which was published in 1875 and a diary (Journal intime}.