Magic and magicians in the Middle Ages and the early modern time

Enlarge text Shrink text
  • Book

There are no clear demarcation lines between magic, astrology, necromancy, medicine, and even sciences in the pre-modern world. Under the umbrella term 'magic,' the contributors to this volume examine a wide range of texts, both literary and religious, both medical and philosophical, in which the topic is discussed from many different perspectives. The fundamental concerns address issue such as how people perceived magic, whether they accepted it and utilized it for their own purposes, and what impact magic might have had on the mental structures of that time. While some papers examine the specific appearance of magicians in literary texts, others analyze the practical application of magic in medical contexts. In addition, this volume includes studies that deal with the rise of the witch craze in the late fifteenth century and then also investigate whether the Weberian notion of disenchantment pertaining to the modern world can be maintained. Magic is, oddly but significantly, still around us and exerts its influence. Focusing on magic in the medieval world thus helps us to shed light on human culture at large.

Title Magic and magicians in the Middle Ages and the early modern time : the occult in pre-modern sciences, medicine, literature, religion, and astrology / edited by Albrecht Classen and Marilyn Sandidge.
Publisher Berlin, [Germany]
Boston, [Massachusetts] : De Gruyter
Creation Date 2017
Notes Includes index.
Issued also in print.
In English.
Content Frontmatter -- Table of Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Magic in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age - Literature, Science, Religion, Philosophy, Music, and Art. An Introduction / Classen, Albrecht -- Magical (and Maligned) Metalworkers: Understanding Representations of Early and High Medieval Blacksmiths / Tormey, Warren -- Painted Eyes, Magical Sieves and Carved Runes: Charms for Catching and Punishing Thieves in the Medieval and Early Modern Germanic Tradition / Benati, Chiara -- Constructing the Magical Biography of the Irish Druid Mog Ruith / O'Leary, Aideen M. -- Zum Umgang mit Zauberern im Rahmen frühmittelalterlicher Missionsanstrengungen (Dealing with Magicians Within the Framework of Early Medieval Missionizing Efforts) / Galle, Christoph -- Magic and Science: The Portail des libraires, Rouen / Golan, Nurit -- The Magic of Love: Queen Isolde, the Magician Clinschor, and "Seeing" in Gottfried's Tristan and Wolfram's Parzival / Clason, Christopher R. -- Magical Gifts in Gottfried von Strassburg's Tristan und Isolde and the Rejection of Magic / Morewedge, Rosmarie Thee -- Was Eustace Diabolical? Magic and Devilry in Le roman de Wistasse le moine / Azuela, Cristina -- Merlin, or, a Prophet Turning Magician / Berthelot, Anne -- The Book of Zabulon - A Quest for Hidden Secrets: Intertextuality and Magical Genealogy in Middle High German Literature, with an Emphasis on Reinfried von Braunschweig / Tuczay, Christa Agnes -- Miracles and Magic: Necromantic Practices Found in Cantiga 125 / Menaldi, Veronica -- Magic at the Margins: The Mystification of Maugis d'Aigremont / Jarchow, Kathleen -- The Magician at Home with his Family: Comparative Historical Ethnographies of Two Pre- Modern Magicians from Autobiographical Sources: John of Morigny and the Tibetan Monk Milarepa / Fanger, Claire -- Curious Clerks: Image Magic and Chaucerian Poetics / Weston, Lisa M. C. -- Representing Magic and Science in The Franklin's Tale and The Canon's Yeoman's Tale: Chaucer's Exploration of Connected Topics / Pigg, Daniel F. -- Magic in Late Medieval German Literature: The Case of the Good Magician Malagis / Classen, Albrecht -- Motives, Means, and a Malevolent Mantel: The Case of Morgan le Fay's Transgressions in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur / Raymond, Dalicia K. -- Witchcraft, Heinrich Kramer's Nuremburg Handbook, and Ecclesiasticus: The Construction of the Fifteenth-Century Civic Sorceress / Ayanna, Amiri -- Magic and Ritual in Late-Medieval and Early-Modern Popular Medicine / Tomíček, David -- Attempted Murder by Magic: The Sorcerer and His Apprentice in Marguerite de Navarre's Heptaméron 1 / Zegura, Elizabeth Chesney -- How Magical Was Renaissance Magic? / Willard, Thomas -- Magic in Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen's Saul and the Witch of Endor / Peacock, Martha Moffitt -- Heterochronic Representation of Magic in Czech Chapbooks / Koten, Jiří -- Rethinking Max Weber's Theory of Disenchantment / Coudert, Allison P. -- Contributors -- Index
Series Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture, 1864-3396
Volume 20
Extent 1 online resource (768 pages) : illustrations.
Language English
Copyright Date ©2017
National Library system number 997010709335905171
MARC RECORDS

Have more information? Found a mistake?