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Dr Jan Machielsen
(he/him)
Reader in Early Modern History, Director of Research
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Overview
I am a historian of early modern religion, with a particular interest in reputations - how people came be to be seen as exceptionally wicked witches or as exceptionally devout, wonder-working saints. I have written widely on both Catholic Reform and the early modern witch-hunt, two subjects brought together by my first "love", the sixteenth-century Jesuit Martin Delrio who wrote an influential work of demonology. My next book The Basque Witch-Hunt: A Secret History examines one of Europe's most notorious witch-hunts and will appear in October 2024.
Publication
2025
- Machielsen, J. 2025. The myth of Pope Joan. In: Rollo-Koster, J. et al. eds. The Cambridge History of the Papacy., Vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 221-245.
- Machielsen, J. 2025. Religion, spirituality and renown. In: Visser, A. ed. A Cultural History of Fame., Vol. 3. The Cultural Histories Series London: Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 97-118.
2024
- Machielsen, J. 2024. The Basque witch-hunt: A secret history. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
- Machielsen, J. 2024. The origins of the Sabbat: A brief Basque case study. Groniek Historisch Tijdschrift 238
2023
- Machielsen, J. 2023. Known unknowns: The mutilated and missing pages of Leiden MS. Lips 3 (2). Humanistica Lovaniensia 72, pp. 173-188.
- Machielsen, J. and Pfeffer, M. 2023. A work out of time: Religion and the decline of magic at 50. Past & Present: A Journal of Historical Studies 261(1), pp. 259-296. (10.1093/pastj/gtad012)
- Machielsen, J. 2023. Sanctity and the refashioning of early modern Catholicism: Saints and their causes between Rome and locality. Papers of the British School at Rome 91, pp. 347-348. (10.1017/S0068246223000181)
- Lamal, N. and Machielsen, J. 2023. Jesuits and print: the polemical example of John Hay. Journal of Jesuit Studies 10(3), pp. 405-418. (10.1163/22141332-10030001)
2022
- Machielsen, J. 2022. The devil is in the tales: Evaluating eye-witness testimony in Martin Delrio’s Disquisitiones magicae (1599–1600). Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural 11(2), pp. 258-280. (10.5325/preternature.11.2.0258)
2021
- Machielsen, J. 2021. Bad reasons: elites and the decline of magic. Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 16(3), pp. 406-414. (10.1353/mrw.2021.0050)
- Machielsen, J. 2021. What’s in a name? Essenes, Therapeutae, and monks in the Christian imagination, c.1500–1700. In: Levitin, D. and Maclean, I. eds. The Worlds of Knowledge and the Classical Tradition in the Early Modern Age: Comparative Approaches., Vol. 33. Scientific and Learned Cultures and Their Institutions Brill, pp. 277-335.
- Machielsen, J. 2021. The war on witchcraft: Andrew Dickson White, George Lincoln Burr, and the origins of witchcraft historiography. Elements in Magic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (10.1017/9781108953313)
- Machielsen, J. 2021. How to study memories in the making. British Catholic History 35(3), pp. 338-351. (10.1017/bch.2021.6)
2020
- Machielsen, J. ed. 2020. The science of demons: early modern authors facing witchcraft and the devil. London: Routledge. (10.4324/9780203702512)
2019
- Machielsen, J. 2019. The making of a teen wolf: Pierre de Lancre’s confrontation with Jean Grenier (1603–1610). Folklore 130(3), pp. 237-257. (10.1080/0015587X.2019.1587935)
- Machielsen, J. 2019. When a female Pope meets a biconfessional town: Protestantism, Catholicism, and popular polemics in the 1630s. Early Modern Low Countries 3(1), pp. 1-31. (10.18352/emlc.88)
2018
- Machielsen, J. 2018. On the confessional uses and history of witchcraft: Thomas Stapleton's 1594 witchcraft oration. Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 13(3), pp. 381-407. (10.1353/mrw.2018.0046)
2017
- Machielsen, J. 2017. An aspiring saint and his work: Cesare Baronio and the success and failure of the Annales ecclesiastici (1588–1607). Erudition and the republic of letters 2(3), pp. 233-287. (10.1163/24055069-00203001)
2016
- Machielsen, J. 2016. Sacrificing Josephus to save Philo: Cesare Baronio and the Jewish origins of Christian monasticism. International Journal of the Classical Tradition 23(3), pp. 239-245. (10.1007/s12138-016-0407-5)
2015
- Machielsen, J. 2015. Martin Delrio: Demonology and scholarship in the Counter-Reformation. British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship Monographs. Oxford: British Academy/Oxford University Press.
- Machielsen, J. 2015. A history of early modern Catholicism in a single object: John Hay's manuscript Apologia (c.1598). British Academy Review 26, pp. 64-68.
2014
- Machielsen, J. 2014. The rise and fall of Seneca Tragicus, c. 1365-1593. Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes LXXVII, pp. 61-85.
- Machielsen, J. 2014. The lion, the witch, and the king: Thomas Stapleton's 'Apologia pro Rege Catholico Philippo II' (1592). English Historical Review 129(536), pp. 19-46. (10.1093/ehr/cet381)
2013
- Machielsen, J. 2013. Friendship and religion in the Republic of Letters; the return of Justus Lipsius to Catholicism (1591). Renaissance Studies 27(2), pp. 161-182. (10.1111/j.1477-4658.2011.00773.x)
- Machielsen, J. 2013. Bodin in the Netherlands. In: Lloyd, H. A. ed. The Reception of Bodin. Brill's Studies in Intellectual History Brill, pp. 157-192., (10.1163/9789004259805_009)
2012
- Machielsen, J. 2012. Heretical saints and textual discernment: the polemical origins of the Acta Sanctorum (1643-1940). In: Copeland, C. and Machielsen, J. eds. Angels of Light? Sanctity and the Discernment of Spirits in the Early Modern Period,. Brill, pp. 103-141., (10.1163/9789004233706_006)
- Copeland, C. and Machielsen, J. 2012. Introduction. In: Copeland, C. and Machielsen, J. eds. Angels of Light? Sanctity and the Discernment of Spirits in the Early Modern Period. Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions Brill, pp. 1-16., (10.1163/9789004233706_002)
2011
- Machielsen, J. 2011. Thinking with Montaigne: evidence, scepticism and meaning in early modern demonology. French History 25(4), pp. 427-452. (10.1093/fh/crr060)
2010
- Machielsen, J. 2010. How (not) to get published: the Plantin Press in the early 1590s. Dutch Crossing 34(2), pp. 99-114. (10.1179/030965610X12726397286124)
Articles
- Machielsen, J. 2024. The origins of the Sabbat: A brief Basque case study. Groniek Historisch Tijdschrift 238
- Machielsen, J. 2023. Known unknowns: The mutilated and missing pages of Leiden MS. Lips 3 (2). Humanistica Lovaniensia 72, pp. 173-188.
- Machielsen, J. and Pfeffer, M. 2023. A work out of time: Religion and the decline of magic at 50. Past & Present: A Journal of Historical Studies 261(1), pp. 259-296. (10.1093/pastj/gtad012)
- Machielsen, J. 2023. Sanctity and the refashioning of early modern Catholicism: Saints and their causes between Rome and locality. Papers of the British School at Rome 91, pp. 347-348. (10.1017/S0068246223000181)
- Lamal, N. and Machielsen, J. 2023. Jesuits and print: the polemical example of John Hay. Journal of Jesuit Studies 10(3), pp. 405-418. (10.1163/22141332-10030001)
- Machielsen, J. 2022. The devil is in the tales: Evaluating eye-witness testimony in Martin Delrio’s Disquisitiones magicae (1599–1600). Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural 11(2), pp. 258-280. (10.5325/preternature.11.2.0258)
- Machielsen, J. 2021. Bad reasons: elites and the decline of magic. Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 16(3), pp. 406-414. (10.1353/mrw.2021.0050)
- Machielsen, J. 2021. How to study memories in the making. British Catholic History 35(3), pp. 338-351. (10.1017/bch.2021.6)
- Machielsen, J. 2019. The making of a teen wolf: Pierre de Lancre’s confrontation with Jean Grenier (1603–1610). Folklore 130(3), pp. 237-257. (10.1080/0015587X.2019.1587935)
- Machielsen, J. 2019. When a female Pope meets a biconfessional town: Protestantism, Catholicism, and popular polemics in the 1630s. Early Modern Low Countries 3(1), pp. 1-31. (10.18352/emlc.88)
- Machielsen, J. 2018. On the confessional uses and history of witchcraft: Thomas Stapleton's 1594 witchcraft oration. Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 13(3), pp. 381-407. (10.1353/mrw.2018.0046)
- Machielsen, J. 2017. An aspiring saint and his work: Cesare Baronio and the success and failure of the Annales ecclesiastici (1588–1607). Erudition and the republic of letters 2(3), pp. 233-287. (10.1163/24055069-00203001)
- Machielsen, J. 2016. Sacrificing Josephus to save Philo: Cesare Baronio and the Jewish origins of Christian monasticism. International Journal of the Classical Tradition 23(3), pp. 239-245. (10.1007/s12138-016-0407-5)
- Machielsen, J. 2015. A history of early modern Catholicism in a single object: John Hay's manuscript Apologia (c.1598). British Academy Review 26, pp. 64-68.
- Machielsen, J. 2014. The rise and fall of Seneca Tragicus, c. 1365-1593. Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes LXXVII, pp. 61-85.
- Machielsen, J. 2014. The lion, the witch, and the king: Thomas Stapleton's 'Apologia pro Rege Catholico Philippo II' (1592). English Historical Review 129(536), pp. 19-46. (10.1093/ehr/cet381)
- Machielsen, J. 2013. Friendship and religion in the Republic of Letters; the return of Justus Lipsius to Catholicism (1591). Renaissance Studies 27(2), pp. 161-182. (10.1111/j.1477-4658.2011.00773.x)
- Machielsen, J. 2011. Thinking with Montaigne: evidence, scepticism and meaning in early modern demonology. French History 25(4), pp. 427-452. (10.1093/fh/crr060)
- Machielsen, J. 2010. How (not) to get published: the Plantin Press in the early 1590s. Dutch Crossing 34(2), pp. 99-114. (10.1179/030965610X12726397286124)
Book sections
- Machielsen, J. 2025. The myth of Pope Joan. In: Rollo-Koster, J. et al. eds. The Cambridge History of the Papacy., Vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 221-245.
- Machielsen, J. 2025. Religion, spirituality and renown. In: Visser, A. ed. A Cultural History of Fame., Vol. 3. The Cultural Histories Series London: Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 97-118.
- Machielsen, J. 2021. What’s in a name? Essenes, Therapeutae, and monks in the Christian imagination, c.1500–1700. In: Levitin, D. and Maclean, I. eds. The Worlds of Knowledge and the Classical Tradition in the Early Modern Age: Comparative Approaches., Vol. 33. Scientific and Learned Cultures and Their Institutions Brill, pp. 277-335.
- Machielsen, J. 2013. Bodin in the Netherlands. In: Lloyd, H. A. ed. The Reception of Bodin. Brill's Studies in Intellectual History Brill, pp. 157-192., (10.1163/9789004259805_009)
- Machielsen, J. 2012. Heretical saints and textual discernment: the polemical origins of the Acta Sanctorum (1643-1940). In: Copeland, C. and Machielsen, J. eds. Angels of Light? Sanctity and the Discernment of Spirits in the Early Modern Period,. Brill, pp. 103-141., (10.1163/9789004233706_006)
- Copeland, C. and Machielsen, J. 2012. Introduction. In: Copeland, C. and Machielsen, J. eds. Angels of Light? Sanctity and the Discernment of Spirits in the Early Modern Period. Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions Brill, pp. 1-16., (10.1163/9789004233706_002)
Books
- Machielsen, J. 2024. The Basque witch-hunt: A secret history. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
- Machielsen, J. 2021. The war on witchcraft: Andrew Dickson White, George Lincoln Burr, and the origins of witchcraft historiography. Elements in Magic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (10.1017/9781108953313)
- Machielsen, J. ed. 2020. The science of demons: early modern authors facing witchcraft and the devil. London: Routledge. (10.4324/9780203702512)
- Machielsen, J. 2015. Martin Delrio: Demonology and scholarship in the Counter-Reformation. British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship Monographs. Oxford: British Academy/Oxford University Press.
Teaching
I am primarily a historian of early modern religion. With my medieval colleague Paul Webster, I teach a new module on the History of the Supernatural which takes a long view on how Christians saw and engaged with supernatural events and creatures, from miracles to witches and werewolves. I also teach an advanced third-year module on the early modern witch-hunt.
Biography
I am Reader in Early Modern History at Cardiff University. I am very much an accidental transplant, both in the UK and in Wales but happy to call both places home.
I first came to Britain as a visiting graduate student in the spring of 2006. I then stayed to complete a second masters, for which I gained a distinction, and a doctorate (supervised by Robin Briggs) at Oxford University. My graduate studies were supported by the AHRC, the Fullbright Commission, the Royal Historical Society, and a Scatcherd European Scholarship from Oxford University. During my doctorate I held visiting fellowships at Princeton and Cornell University in the United States.
After completing my PhD early 2011, I held a number of temporary teaching and research posts, before moving to Cardiff in January 2016.
Education and qualifications
- 2011: DPhil in History, Oriel College, University of Oxford
- 2007: MSt in Historical Research, Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford
- 2006: MA in European History and Civilisation, Leiden University
- 2005: BA in Humanities and Social Sciences, University College Maastricht
Honours and awards
- 2022: Balsdon Fellow, British School at Rome
- 2020–2021: Humboldt Research Fellowship for experienced researchers
- 2019–2020: Leverhulme Research Fellowship
- 2019: British Academy/Leverhulme Small Grant
- 2012–2013: British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship
- 2006–2010: Scatcherd European Scholarship, International Office, University of Oxford
- 2007–2010: Doctoral Award, Arts & Humanities Research Council
- 2008–2009: Fulbright Scholarship
Professional memberships
- Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS)
- Fellow of Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
- Member of the Renaissance Society of America
- Member of the Society of Renaissance Studies
Academic positions
- 2022--: Reader in Early Modern History, Cardiff University
- 2019-2022: Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History, Cardiff University
- 2016-2019: Lecturer in Early Modern History, Cardiff University
- 2013-2015: Departmental Lecturer in Early Modern European History, New College, University of Oxford
- 2012-2013: British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Balliol College, University of Oxford
- 2011: Departmental Lecturer in Early Modern European History, Balliol College, University of Oxford
Committees and reviewing
- Editor of the Transactions of the Royal Historical Society (2024–)
- Council Member of the Society of Renaissance Studies (2021–2024)
- Member of the AHRC Peer Review College (2017–)
Contact Details
Research themes
Specialisms
- Early Modern history
- History of religion
