The sorcerer's tale : faith and fraud in Tudor England

Resource Information

The work The sorcerer's tale : faith and fraud in Tudor England represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Missouri University of Science & Technology Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

The sorcerer's tale : faith and fraud in Tudor England

Title remainder

faith and fraud in Tudor England

Statement of responsibility

Alec Ryrie

Creator

• Ryrie, Alec

Subject

• Crime -- England | London -- History -- 16th century
• England -- Social conditions -- 16th century
• Great Britain -- History -- Tudors, 1485-1603
• Conspiracies -- England -- History -- 16th century
• Swindlers and swindling -- England -- History -- 16th century
• Westmorland, Henry Neville, Earl of, 1524 or 1525-1564
• Wisdom, Gregory, -1599
• Magic -- England -- History -- 16th century

Language

eng

Summary

"An earl's son, plotting murder by witchcraft; conjuring spirits to find buried treasure; a stolen coat embroidered with pure silver; crooked gaming-houses and brothels; a terrifying new disease, and the self-trained surgeon who claims he can treat it." "This is the world of Gregory Wisdom, a physician, magician, and consummate con-man at work in sixteenth-century London. In this book, Alec Ryrie uses previously unknown documents to reconstruct this extraordinary man's career. The journey takes us through the cut-throat business of early modern medicine, down to Tudor London's gangland of fraud and organized crime; from the world of Renaissance magi and Kabbalistic conjurers to street-corner wizards; and into the chaotic, exhilarating religious upheavals of the Reformation." "On the way, we learn how Tudor England's dignified public face and its rapacious underworld were intimately connected to each other. Gregory Wisdom's career is an object lesson in how to conjure up wealth and respectability from nothing in a turbulent age. And it provides a unique glimpse into a world intoxicated with new ideas, where it was impossible to know quite what to believe - or who to trust."--BOOK JACKET

Biography type

contains biographical information

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

• 364.16/3092
• 942.05092

Illustrations

• illustrations
• facsimiles

Index

index present

LC call number

HV6692.W57

LC item number

R97 2008

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography