{"id":15709,"date":"2021-05-06T03:04:43","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T03:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/?p=15709"},"modified":"2023-02-17T12:37:40","modified_gmt":"2023-02-17T12:37:40","slug":"medieval-magic-in-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/medieval-magic-in-theory\/","title":{"rendered":"Medieval Magic in Theory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Medieval Magic in Theory:
\nPrologues to Learned Texts of Magic<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Session Organized by Vajra Regan<\/h2>\n

***<\/h3>\n
\"Hermes

Hermes Trismegistus. Frontispiece image (Lyons, 1669) via Wikimedia Commons and Wellcome Images.<\/p><\/div>\n

Session (1 of 3) Co-sponsored by
\nthe Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
\nand the Societas Magica<\/a>
\nat the
\n56th International Congress on Medieval Studies
\n(10\u201315 May 2021)<\/h3>\n

2021 Congress Program Announced<\/a><\/p>\n

Congress Session 103, Virtually on
\nTuesday, 11 May at 11:00 am EDT<\/p>\n

= 2021 Congress Program<\/a>, pages 38\u201339<\/p>\n

Our plans for this 2021 Session adapt its plan for the cancelled 2020 Congress<\/a>. Now it is co-sponsored by the Research Group and the Societas Magica, and parts of the contents have been updated.<\/p>\n

Scope & Aims<\/h2>\n

The prologues to medieval texts of learned magic could serve a variety of functions. They were a space for their authors to announce the theme of the work, to situate the work within a specific literary, philosophical, or theological landscape, and to lay special claim to the reader\u2019s attention. Consequently, these prologues have much to tell us about the traditions and beliefs underlying certain magical texts. Moreover, because many magical texts are substantially anonymous compilations, their prologues often provide unique access to the lives and contexts of the men and women behind the parchment.<\/p>\n

The aim of this session is to explore these still largely understudied prologues which testify to the variety of medieval approaches to ‘magic’. We are especially interested in how magic is theorized in these prologues. What insights do these prologues offer into contemporary debates about the epistemological status of magic? Moreover, what can they tell us about the social, religious, and institutional contexts of their authors and readers?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Organizer<\/h2>\n

Vajra Regan
\nCentre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto<\/em><\/h2>\n

Program<\/h1>\n

Presider<\/h2>\n

Mildred Budny<\/strong> (Research Group on Manuscript Evidence<\/em>)<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

1. Papers<\/h1>\n

Paper 1<\/h2>\n

David Porreca<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Department of Classics, University of Waterloo<\/em><\/h3>\n

“Introducing the Picatrix<\/em><\/a>:
\nThe Prologue’s Balancing Act between Content and Perception”<\/h2>\n

Abstract<\/strong><\/h4>\n

[Also available here: Porecca (2021 (Congress)<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

The astral magic text known as Picatrix<\/a> was the target of substantial opprobrium by many of the intellectual luminaries of the 15th<\/sup>\u201317th<\/sup> centuries, including Fran\u00e7ois Rabelais<\/a>, Symphorien Champier<\/a>, Gabriel Naud\u00e9<\/a>, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola<\/a>, and Johannes Hartlieb<\/a>. Although some made profitable use of the text within their own work, they were so concerned about the cloud of controversy surrounding the text that they rarely (if ever) mentioned it by name. (Examples are Marsilio Ficino<\/a> in De vita libri tres<\/em>; and the frescos by Cosimo Tura<\/a> and Francesco del Cossa<\/a> of allegorical scenes of the Zodiac<\/a> at the Palazzo Schifanoia<\/a> in Ferrara). Moreover, the text was popular enough to survive in seventeen complete manuscripts between the 15th<\/sup> and the 17th<\/sup> centuries (in addition to multiple abridged or fragmentary versions), yet it never appeared in print until the 20th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n

The potential for controversy surrounding the text was also known to its original author Maslama bin Q\u0101sim al-Qur\u1e6dub\u012b (died 353 AH \/ 964 CE) and its subsequent translators (into Spanish, 1250\u2019s; thence into Latin, later 13th<\/sup> century). Indeed, the text\u2019s prologue strikes a delicate balancing act between providing the reader with an authentic reflection of its contents vs. trying to allay the negative reaction to said contents that could be expected from an insufficiently prepared readership.<\/p>\n

This paper will explore the rhetorical devices, as well as the historical, theological, philosophical, and factual claims made therein, and discuss how that assemblage presents an accurate \u2014 yet almost completely whitewashed \u2014 picture of the text as a whole. For the most part, the Picatrix<\/em> falls well beyond the window of acceptable discourse of the 10th<\/sup>\u201317th<\/sup>centuries, and its prologue offers a vigorous attempt to distract the reader from that fact.<\/p>\n

\"The

Both Authors at the 2019 Congress. Photography Mildred Budny.<\/p><\/div>\n

*****<\/p>\n

See also:<\/p>\n

Picatrix: A Medieval Treatise on Astral Magic<\/em>, translated with an Introduction by Dan Attrell and David Porreca, based on the Latin edition by David Pingree. Magic in History Series (University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2019).<\/p>\n

The Prologue to the Picatrix<\/em> stands on pages 37\u201338.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Paper 2<\/h2>\n

Vajra Regan<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto<\/em>
\n<\/strong><\/h3>\n

“The Secret in the Prologue to the Collected Treasures<\/em>:
\nBiblical Allusions, Occult References, and Coded Language
\nin a Thirteenth-Century Medical\u2013Magical Lapidary\u201d<\/h2>\n
\"\"

Vajra Regan, Inscribed Areola Diagram for Session on ‘Prologues’ (2021)<\/p><\/div>\n

1) Abstract<\/strong><\/h4>\n

[Also available here: Regan (2020>2021 Congress)<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

This paper examines three brief prologues all taken from a previously unstudied thirteenth-century medical-magical lapidary<\/a>. The lapidary is notable for the way it assimilates and reconfigures various texts of <\/a>Hermetic<\/a> and <\/a>Solomonic<\/a> magic. Although the author has taken pains to disguise his source material, a close reading of the prologues reveals that he has inserted certain clues that point to the magical nature of his work.<\/a><\/p>\n

Read together, the prologues form a coherent narrative of fall and redemption in which the study of precious stones and their (magical) properties is presented as an accessus<\/em> to God; however, it is also a narrative in which biblical references alternate, often playfully, with the standard tropes of the Hermetic and Solomonic literature. In this way, the prologues provide a moral and spiritual justification for the study of precious stones while simultaneously alluding to the occult philosophy underpinning the entire work.<\/p>\n

2) Handouts
\n<\/strong><\/h4>\n