Magic in the Middle Ages

Print version:

Cover; Title; Copyright; Contents; List of illustrations; Foreword to the Canto edition; Preface; 1 INTRODUCTION: MAGIC AS A CROSSROADS; Two case studies; Definitions of magic; Plan for this book; 2 THE CLASSICAL INHERITANCE; Scientific and philosophical literature; Fictional literature; The Bible and biblical apocrypha; Magic, early Christianity, and the Graeco-Roman world; 3 THE TWILIGHT OF PAGANISM: MAGIC IN NORSE AND IRISH CULTURE; Conversion and pagan survivals; Runic inscriptions; The Norse sagas; Irish literature; 4 THE COMMON TRADITION OF MEDIEVAL MAGIC. Practitioners of magic: healers and divinersMedical magic: herbs and animals; Charms: prayers, blessings, and adjurations; Protective amulets and talismans; Sorcery: the misuse of medical and protective magic; Divination and popular astrology; The art of trickery; 5 THE ROMANCE OF MAGIC IN COURTLY CULTURE; Magicians at court; Magical objects: automatons and gems; Magic in the romances and related literature; 6 ARABIC LEARNING AND THE OCCULT SCIENCES; The transformations of European intellectual life; The practice of astrology; Principles of astrology; Astral magic; Alchemy. The cult of secrecy and books of secretsThe Renaissance magus; 7 NECROMANCY IN THE CLERICAL UNDERWORLD; The making of a clerical underworld; Formulas and rituals for conjuring spirits; The sources for necromancy; Necromancy in the exempla; 8 PROHIBITION, CONDEMNATION, AND PROSECUTION; Legal prohibition; Moral and theological condemnation; Patterns of prosecution; The rise of the witch trials; Conclusion; Further reading; Index