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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

42 Primary Sources Della Porta, Natural Magic Agrippa, De Occulta Philosophia Ficino, Apologia Reuchlin, De Arte Cabbalistica Agrippa, De Occulta Philosophia Do Valle de Moura, De Incantationibus Borromeo, De Cabbalisticis Inventis Reuchlin, De Arte Cabbalistica Del Rio, Disquisitiones Magicae Secondary Reading Bossy, J., Giordani Bruno and the Embassy Affair (New Haven, 1991). Burke, P., ‗Witchcraft and Magic in Renaissance Italy. Gianfrancesco Pico and his Strix‘, in S.Anglo ed., The Damned Art. Essays in the Literature of Witchcraft (London, 1977). Clulee, N.H., John Dee's natural philosophy : between science and religion (London, 1988). Copenhaver, B.P., ‗Scholastic Philosophy and Renaissance Magic in the De Vita of Marsilio Ficino‘, Renaissance Quarterly 37 (1984). ‗Astrology and Magic‘, in C.Schmitt, Q.Skinner eds., The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy (Cambridge, 1987). ‗Natural Magic, Hermeticism and Occultism in early Modern Science‘, in D.Lindberg, R.Westman eds., Reappraisals of the Scientific Revolution (Cambridge, 1990). Debus, A.G., Man and Nature in the Renaissance (Cambridge, 1978). The English Paracelsians (Cambridge, 1975). Dobbs, B., The Foundations of Newton’s Alchemy (1975) Gatti, H., Giordano Bruno and Renaissance Science (Ithaca, 1999). Kieckhefer, R., European Witch Trials. Their Origin in Popular and Learned Culture 1300-1500 (London, 1976). Levack, B., Renaissance Magic (New York, 1992). Marshall, P., The Philosopher’s Stone: A Quest for the Secrets of Alchemy (2002) Michel, P.H., The Cosmology of Giordano Bruno (London, 1972). Nicholl, C., The Chemical Theatre (1980) [on alchemy in Shakespeare and his contemporaries] Paterson, A., The Infinite Worlds of Giordano Bruno (New York, 1970). Sigerist, H ed., Paracelsus. Four Treatises (Baltimore, 1996). Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (1971), chs 10-12 Thorndike, L., History of Magic (London, 1929-1958). Vickers, B., Occult and Scientific Mentalities in the Renaissance (Cambridge, 1984). Walker, D.P., Spiritual and Demonic Magic from Ficino to Campanella (Pennsylvania, 2000). Webster, C., From Paracelsus to Newton : magic and the making of modern science (Cambridge, 1982). Yates, F., Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (London, 1964). Szydlo, Z., and R. Brzezinksi, ‗A New Light on Alchemy‘, History Today, 47 (January 1997) Seminar 6 : Text Study – Wolfgang Behringer’s ‘Shaman of Oberstdorf’. At the end of our study of attitudes to witchcraft, magic, and the occult, the story of events in the town of Oberstdorf provides a useful case study of popular beliefs and
43 fears, and attitudes to the supernatural, ghosts, death and myth. Behringer outlines the events that led to the death of Stoeckhlin, and others of the his community, and the tensions that could develop between popular religious and magic practice and the official stance of the church. The ‗end of the dreamtime‘ came when the forces of church and state were brought to bear on the stories of Stoeckhlin, and as Behringer writes ‗the people of the night were pushed underground and the fairies took their leave of history‘. Given that the book is often compared to Ginzburg‘s The Cheese and the Worms, it raises the same kind of questions about the value of such individual studies and the problems of detailed research into popular oral culture. When reading Shaman of Oberstdorf it is worth bearing in mind these issues, but also considering how the story of Conrad Stoeckhlin fits into our work on magic and witchcraft this term, and last term‘s discussions on ghosts, the afterlife, portents and prophecy. Although we will have a general ‗revision‘ session at the end of term, this text study would be a good chance to think about some of the themes covered already in the course. There are no set documents for this class. Secondary reading as appropriate to the broader implications of the book. Seminar 8: Astrology and Astronomy Summary Keith Thomas tells us that the basic astrological assumptions are easy to grasp: astronomy is the study of the movements of the starts, while astrology is the study of the effects of those movements. The four elements earth, air, fire and water — were controlled by the movements of the stars, and kept in motion by the journeys of the planets across the skies. We have already seen in our studies of magic and medicine that a knowledge of the stars was also a key feature of much of the learned magic. divination and science of the time. Astrology offered an explanation for human fortunes, good and bad, and a means of understanding worldly events. As Lilly, the great English astrologer, wrote in 1647 there was ‗nothing appertaining to the life of man in this world which is one way or another hath not relation to one of the twelve houses of heaven‘. However from the earliest Christian centuries there had been conflict and hostility between the star-gazers and the church, and the aftermath of the Reformation was no exception. Protestant writers and preachers denounced the predictions of the astrologers as anti-Christian, and astrology was among the long list of practices forbidden in the Bull of Sixtus V, Coeli et Terra. Universities with a chair of astrology changed the title to astronomy to avoid papal condemnation. The early modern period also witnessed a renewal of interest in astronomy, its most famous practitioners including Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler. What advances, then, did astronomy bring in knowledge and understanding of the stars? What was the relationship between astronomy and astrology, between astrology and religion, events in the heavens and events on earth? Seminar Preparation What was the attraction of astrology in the early modern period, and to whom? What functions did astrology have? What was the appeal of almanacs and prognostications?
Page 1 and 2: Module title: Ritual, Myth and Magi
Page 3 and 4: 3 Module title: Ritual, Myth and Ma
Page 5 and 6: 5 Ritual, Myth and Magic in Early M
Page 7 and 8: 7 Course Outline Autumn Term Week O
Page 9 and 10: 9 The Cheese and the Worms Does the
Page 11 and 12: 11 T.Heffernan, Sacred Biography: S
Page 13 and 14: 13 Secondary Reading Burke, P., Pop
Page 15 and 16: 15 Secondary Sources Aston, M., Eng
Page 17 and 18: 17 reinforce the social and legal o
Page 19 and 20: 19 miraculous, and other prodigious
Page 21 and 22: 21 Curry, P., Prophecy and power :
Page 23 and 24: 23 D.Watt, Secretaries of God: Wome
Page 25 and 26: 25 people were familiar with death
Page 27 and 28: 27 that the dead were only too happ
Page 29 and 30: 29 before the Inquisition, and whos
Page 31 and 32: 31 Seminar Preparation We will use
Page 33 and 34: 33 Seminar One: The Malleus Malefic
Page 35 and 36: 35 of explaining why it was that th
Page 37 and 38: 37 and the majority of those who we
Page 39 and 40: 39 Seminar 4 : Magic I - Popular Be
Page 41: 41 Wear, ‗Religious Beliefs and M
Page 45 and 46: 45 Read, J., Prelude to Chemistry.

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

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?