jennyg@compuserve.com Re: New Books on Medieval Magick Taliesin_2 shane@cais.com Mon Oct 12 15:36:00 1998 Jenny wrote,*br*: The Pennsylvania State University Press has started a series *br*: called "Magic in History", which publishes new *br*: research on European magick as well as reprints of *br*: hard-to-find occult texts. I recently picked up two.*br*:*br*: One is _Conjuring Spirits: Texts and Traditions of Medieval *br*: Ritual Magic_, edited by Claire Fanger. It's a collection *br*: of essays on such diverse topics as Christian appropriation *br*: of Jewish occultism, a survey of English magickal manusripts *br*: from 1300-1500, a fragmentary German divination device, and *br*: analyses of a couple of grimoires (Secretum philosophorum, *br*: the Sworn Book of Honorious of Thebes, and the Book of *br*: Angels).*br*:*br*: Interesting if dense stuff. Just so you know, this is all *br*: on ceremonial (or ritual) magick, not Witchcraft.*br*:*br*: The second book was by one of my favorite scholars, Richard *br*: Kieckhefer: _Forbidden Rites: A necromancer's Manual of *br*: the Fifteenth Century_. Kieckhefer found a 15th century *br*: German manuscript which had escaped scholarly notice until *br*: now. It's ceremonial magick again, with a wide variety of *br*: spells.*br*:*br*: The first 200 pages of the text comprises a general analysis *br*: of the book, with translations of many sections. Kieckhefer *br*: compares the manuscript to other grimoires, placing it in *br*: the larger context of European ritual magick.*br*:*br*: The second 200 pages are the (enormous!) text itself. The *br*: good news is, it's all here and it's in its original *br*: language (medieval Latin). A detail fanatics like me *br*: appreciate. <g>*br*:*br*: The bad news is, it's NOT translated. (Yeah I'm a fanatic *br*: -- but I'm a lazy fanatic. I still like to have a *br*: translation at hand.)*br*:*br*: Worse, the rubrics (chapter and spell titles) are translated *br*: -- but the text isn't. So you look at page 236, see *br*: "The mirror of Floron, for Revelation of Past, Present *br*: and Future" and think, "Wow, that sounds *br*: cool." But when you go to read how to make this *br*: critter, it's all "Habeus corpus, sic et non, etc., *br*: etc."*br*:*br*: So if you don't read Latin, half the book won't do you any *br*: good. I can see why Penn State chose not to include a *br*: translation -- it would have made this an unwieldy book *br*: (600+ pages...). But the end result is mainly aimed at a *br*: specialist audience. Kieckhefer's 200 page introduction may *br*: be worth the price of the book by itself, but I think it *br*: would still be very disappointing not to be able to read the *br*: text itself.*br*:*br*: One other random note: Keith Thomas' magisterial work, *br*: _Religion and the Decline of Magic_ is now out in reprint! *br*: This is a fantastic introduction to the world of popular *br*: magick in England. It can be dense (I recommend reading it *br*: in chunks, a little at a time.) But it's one of the best *br*: guides to what life was like for the *average* Witch -- the *br*: vast majority of them who never got accused of *br*: "witchcraft".*br*:*br*: Jenny*p**br*I'm glad you posted this, but got a question: Do you think Amazon.com would be stocking these books? I'm asking here before I let myself down by getting my hopes up to high. New Books on Medieval Magick Jenny 43 Tue Oct 6 14:36:25 1998