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Overview
Magic existed in diverse forms in the Middle Ages, from simple charms to complex and subversive demonic magic. Its negative characteristics were defined by theologians who sought to isolate undesirable rituals and beliefs, but there were also many who believed that the condemned texts and practices were valuable and compatible with orthodox piety.
Magic in Medieval Manuscripts explores the place of magic in the medieval world and the contradictory responses it evoked, through an exploration of images and texts in British Library manuscripts. These range from representations of the magician, wise-woman and witch, to charms against lightning, wax images for inciting love, and diagrams to find treasure. Most elaborate of all the magical practices are rituals for communicating with and commanding spirits. Whether expressions of piety, ambition, or daring, these rituals reveal a medieval fascination with the points of contact between this world and the celestial and infernal realms.
Synopsis
Page (history, University College, London) makes good use of the collection of medieval manuscripts in the British Library as she explains how magic, considered an undesirable ritual by theologians, was nevertheless embraced by the laity as evidence of the work of demons and angels amongst the informed. As a result, signs of belief in magic can be found in texts in the images of magicians, in depiction of the magic of the unusual and the usual in nature, in images considered powerful in themselves, and in drawings of the organization of the universe, as well as in pictures showing outright necromancy and sorcery. Page reminds us that belief in magic was the act of a rational medieval mind. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR