The Routledge History of Medieval Magic brings together the work of scholars from across Europe and North America to provide extensive insights into recent developments in the study of medieval magic between c.1100 and c.1500.
This book covers a wide range of topics, including the magical texts which circulated in medieval Europe, the attitudes of intellectuals and churchmen to magic, the ways in which magic intersected with other aspects of medieval culture, and the early witch trials of the fifteenth century. In doing so, it offers the reader a detailed look at the impact that magic had within medieval society, such as its relationship to gender roles, natural philosophy, and courtly culture. This is furthered by the book’s interdisciplinary approach, containing chapters dedicated to archaeology, literature, music, and visual culture, as well as texts and manuscripts.
The Routledge History of Medieval Magic also outlines how research on this subject could develop in the future, highlighting under-explored subjects, unpublished sources, and new approaches to the topic. It is the ideal book for both established scholars and students of medieval magic.
Introduction
Sophie Page and Catherine Rider
Part One: Conceptualizing Magic
1. Rethinking How to Define Magic
Richard Kieckhefer
2. For Magic: against Method
Claire Fanger
3. A Discourse Historical Approach towards Medieval Learned Magic
Bernd-Christian Otto
4. The Concept of Magic
D. L. d’Avray
5. Responses
Richard Kieckhefer, D. L. d’Avray, Bernd-Christian Otto and Claire Fanger
Part Two: Languages and Dissemination
6. Arabic Magic: the Impetus for Translating Texts, and their Reception
Charles Burnett
7. The Latin Encounter with Hebrew Magic: Problems and Approaches
Katelyn Mesler
8. Magic in Romance languages
Sebastià Giralt
9. Central and Eastern Europe
Benedek Láng
10. Magic in Celtic Lands
Mark Williams
11. Scandinavia
Stephen A. Mitchell
Part Three: Key Genres and Figures
12. From Hermetic Magic to the Magic of Marvels
Antonella Sannino
13. The Notion of Properties: A Tension Between Sciencia and Ars in Medieval Natural Philosophy and Magic
Isabelle Draelants
14. Solomonic Magic
Julien Véronèse
15. Necromancy
Frank Klaassen
16. John of Morigny
Claire Fanger and Nicholas Watson
17. Cecco d’Ascoli and Antonio da Montolmo: The Building of a "Nigromantical" Cosmology and the Birth of the Author-Magician
Nicolas Weill-Parot
18. Beringarius Ganellus and the Summa sacre magice: Magic as the Promotion of God’s Kingship
Damaris Aschera Gehr
19. Jerome Torrella and Astrological Images
Nicolas Weill-Parot
20. Peter of Zealand
Jean-Marc Mandosio
Part Four: Themes (Magic and…)
21. Magic and Natural Philosophy
Steven P. Marrone
22. Medicine and Magic
Peter Murray Jones and Lea T. Olsan
23. Illusion
Robert Goulding
24. Magic at Court
Jean-Patrice Boudet
25. Magic and Gender
Catherine Rider
26. Magic in Literature: Romance Transformations
Corinne Saunders
27. Music
John Haines
28. Magic and Archaeology: Ritual Residues and ‘Odd Deposits’
Roberta Gilchrist
29. The Visual Culture of Magic in the Middle Ages
Alejandro García Avilés
30. Medieval Magical Figures: Between Image and Text
Sophie Page
Part Five: Anti-Magical Discourse in the Later Middle Ages
31. Scholasticism and High Medieval Opposition to Magic
David J. Collins
32. Pastoral Literature and Preaching
Kathleen Kamerick
33. Superstition and Sorcery
Michael D. Bailey
34. Witchcraft
Martine Ostorero
35. Epilogue: Cosmology and Magic: the Angel of Mars in the Libro de Astromagia
Alejandro García Avilés
36. Further Reading
Biography
Sophie Page is an Associate Professor in Late Medieval History at UCL. She is working on medieval magic and astrology, especially in relation to religion, natural philosophy, medicine, and cosmology.
Catherine Rider is an Associate Professor in Medieval History at the University of Exeter. Her research focuses on the history of magic in the later Middle Ages, looking especially at the relationship between magic and the medieval church.
"The breadth of this volume – geographical, linguistic, chronological and disciplinary – is a
huge feat, and The Routledge History of Medieval Magic is an important addition to existing
scholarship. The sections entitled ‘Future directions’ are perhaps the book’s most important
component, providing a way forward for future research in a field that offers so much, standing as
it does, in the words of Kieckhefer, at a ‘kind of crossroads where different pathways in medieval
culture converge’." Joanne Edge Ceræ: An Australasian Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies