Embedded in the Mainstream: Ritual Magic Incorporated in "Legitimate" Texts

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Research Group on Manuscript Evidence; Societas Magica

Organizer Name

Vajra Regan

Organizer Affiliation

Univ. of Toronto

Presider Name

David Porreca

Presider Affiliation

Univ. of Waterloo

Paper Title 1

Scriptural Dreaming: Revisiting the Exstacy Defense

Presenter 1 Name

Claire Fanger

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Rice Univ.

Paper Title 2

Scriptural References as Legitimation Strategy in Late Medieval German Magical Formulas

Presenter 2 Name

Chiara Benati

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Univ. degli Studi di Genova

Paper Title 3

Not Underground: Learned Lapidaries and the Reformation of Ritual Magic

Presenter 3 Name

Vajra Regan

Paper Title 4

In Plain Sight: The Promotion of Astrology and Magic at Royal Courts in the Thirteenth Century in Transcultural Perspective: A Response

Presenter 4 Name

Michael A. Conrad

Presenter 4 Affiliation

Kunsthistorisches Institut, Univ. Zürich

Start Date

10-5-2019 3:30 PM

Session Location

Schneider 1120

Description

Although texts of ritual magic circulated widely during the later Middle Ages, the opprobrium they attracted both elevated the risks for their owner-users, and limited the physical lifespan of the codices themselves when they caught the attention of Church authorities. Consequently, texts of ritual magic often survive not as independently circulating treatises, but rather as subsections of more innocuous-seeming treatises on other topics such as natural philosophy or medicine. This session aims to bring to light and discuss this particular sub-category of magical treatises, their transmission histories, and the inter-textualities between them and their textual “hosts”. Mildred Budny