This thesis discusses the reputations of astrologers, cunning folk, and magical practitioners in seventeenth-century England, identifying key features of these reputations, their significance, and the means by which they were constructed, maintained, and propagated.
The importance of reputation in early modern England has been long acknowledged, especially by social and economic historians, and the profusion of magic and magical practitioners in seventeenth-century society is likewise well established. But the study of reputations has focused primarily on economic credit and some other areas such as sexual morality, rarely extending into other areas of life. Few scholars have considered reputation as a relevant category in studies of magic, especially outside of the context of witchcraft accusations. Likewise, magic has very rarely been one of the social, cultural, or economic activities given consideration by studies of reputation.
This thesis will address this gap with an examination of magical reputations and their holders, further grounding magic and astrology in their social context, as well as broadening conceptions of reputation and its components. This will be done using a mix of cases and methodologies. The first half uses archival methods to reconstruct elements of the reputations of ‘ordinary’ practitioners, and the second half focuses on case studies of high-profile magical practitioners, whose reputations are the subjects of a diverse range of sources.
Magical reputations emerge as complex and varied, but with certain important themes throughout, particularly trust and truthfulness, the interconnection of reputations, and scales of fame, notoriety, and celebrity available to magical practitioners.
