Magic in History. Magic in the Cloister : : Pious Motives, Illicit Interests, and Occult Approaches to the Medieval Universe / / Sophie Page.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Penn State University Press Complete eBook-Package Pre-2014
• VerfasserIn: Page, Sophie,
• Place / Publishing House: University Park, PA : : Penn State University Press, , [2015]; ©2013
• Year of Publication: 2015
• Language: English
• Series: Magic in History
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (248 p.) :; 6 illustrations

During the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries a group of monks with occult interests donated what became a remarkable collection of more than thirty magic texts to the library of the Benedictine abbey of St. Augustine's in Canterbury. The monks collected texts that provided positive justifications for the practice of magic and books in which works of magic were copied side by side with works of more licit genres. In Magic in the Cloister, Sophie Page uses this collection to explore the gradual shift toward more positive attitudes to magical texts and ideas in medieval Europe. She examines what attracted monks to magic texts, works, and how they combined magic with their intellectual interests and monastic life. By showing how it was possible for religious insiders to integrate magical studies with their orthodox worldview, Magic in the Cloister contributes to a broader understanding of the role of magical texts and ideas and their acceptance in the late Middle Ages.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- 1 Monks and their magic texts at St. Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury -- 2 Natural magic: The basilisk and the Lodestone -- 3 The liber vaccae: magical uses of monstrous creations -- 4 Image magic: harnessing power in the harmonious universe -- 5 The liber de essentia spirituum: magic, revelation, and fellowship with spirits -- 6 The ars notoria and its monastic audience -- Epilogue: John Dee, St. Augustine’s manuscripts, and renaissance magic -- Appendix 1 Translation of the Glossulae super Librum imaginum lunae, Oxford, Corpus Christi College 125, fols. 109r–110v -- Appendix 2 Translation of the Liber de essentia spirituum, Oxford, Corpus Christi College 125, fols. 169–173 -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Index