Encyclopedia of Demonology

In a world, in which the cultural patrimony is more and more arbitrarily treated, the need for recording and disentanglement of information about demonic beings is more strongly felt. Even though the tendency towards a rational world view was predominant throughout the last centuries, the demons, seen as supernatural beings, located between the human and the divine sphere, have not disappered. On the contrary, they are continuously populating the products of modern media industries (TV, movies, internet and literature). When completing an encyclopaedia of demonology, the changable character of its apperarance has to be considered. The single beings are to be interpreted along the lines of etymology and cultural history by consideration of their earliest mentionings and descriptions. In cases where this can not be ascertained unambiguously, the scientific discussion on the topic has to be traced. A clearer picture of their intensity in belief and continuity, frequency, dissemination and dynamics of content is to be gained by an evaluation of early religious, medical and magic books as well as ethnological collections. Also the iconographic manifestation, if tangible at all, should be delineated by the presentation of selected examples. The texts for the single lemmata will be composed by one scientific collaborator. His/her sources will be the early medical and physiological treaties, medieval and early modern demonologies, and especially the innumerable folkloristic collections of folk narrative and popular magic as well as the numerous dialect collections and dictionaries (idiotica). Furthermore, also the results of the newest publications from the various historical disciplines like the histories of religion, literature, art and ethnology are to be incorporated. In order to access the required literature short stays in Vienna (National Library), Munich (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek), Wolffenbüttel (Herzog August Bibliothek) and Dresden (Spamer`s collection of magic charms) are necessary. Research and composition of the lemmata texts will be completed within two years (14 months).