Ritual, Myth and Magic in Early Modern Europe - University of Reading

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Wear, ‗Religious Beliefs and Medicine in Early Modern England‘, in H. Marland and
M. Pelling (eds), The Task of Healing Medicine, Religion and Gender in England and
the Netherlands (1996)
Webster, ‗Paracelsus Confronts Saints: Miracles, Healing and the Secularisation of
Magic‘, Social History of Medicine, 8 (1995)
Wilson, S., The Magical Universe: Everyday Ritual and Magic in Pre-Modern
Europe (2000), chs. 12-13
Seminar 5 : Magic II – The Renaissance Magus
Summary
Any attempt to survey popular beliefs and attitudes towards magic raises questions
about the interaction of popular and elite cultures, and the ability to separate the two.
In looking at attitudes to magic in early modern Italy, for example, it is clear that the
role of the clergy in local practice, as sources of ecclesiastical medicine, or of more
general supernatural and magical powers, should not be underestimated. Richard
Kieckhefer has identified a clerical underworld of sorcerers and necromancers in late
medieval Europe, suggesting that early modern magic was not simply ill thought out
superstition, but also a pastime of the educated and literate. In seeking precedents and
advice in their art, the magicians of the Renaissance, like other scholars, turned to the
classical and ancient past, seeking what they believed were authentic materials for
study and learning. Out of this investigation of the past emerged the hero of the
Renaissance magus, Hermes Trismegistus, the origin of the ‗hermetic tradition‘. The
Humanist revival of the ancient languages also helped to renew interest in the Jewish
Kabbalist tradition, and the wonderworking power of words. The same themes of the
relationship between magic, science, and religion can be traced in both elite and
popular magic, and the revival of interest in magic in the Renaissance helped to stir up
further controversy and debate.
Seminar Preparation
There are a number of individuals whose contribution to writing and thinking on
magic in the Renaissance are worthy of further consideration. Renaissance magic was
not monolithic, and there are a few different discernible trends. We will focus our
discussions on the documents and on the life and work of the following :
(1) Marsilio Ficino
(2) Johannes Trithemius (see N.Brann The Abbot Trithemius for more detail)
(3) Giordano Bruno
(4) Cornelius Agrippa
(5) Thomas Campanella
(6) Paracelsus (Theophrastus Phillippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim)
(7) John Dee
(8) Johannes Reuchlin