Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines the voluminous Anthropodemus Plutonic / Das ist / Eine Neue Welt-Beschreibung / von allerley / Wunderbahren Menschen (1666), a description of the world's peoples that is neither new nor covers the whole world. It turns from Praetorius's more general review of wonders and the preternatural to the specific natures of giants and witches. The book explores these in his tract about the mountain spirit Rübezahl, the Daemonologia Rubinzalii (1662), and his well-known and influential demonology Blockes-Berges Verrichtung, (1668). It presents Praetorius as a reporter and interpreter of celestial signs and current events. The book highlights the enormous impact of regular and periodic news on European literary and historical writing. It devotes to Praetorius's take on gender and class, his observations concerning the social realities of young girls and grown women, of husband and lovers.