Nicholas Watson

Richard Kieckhefer

Claire Fanger

Conjuring Spirits contains both general surveys and analyses of magical texts and manuscripts by distinguished scholars in a variety of disciplines. Included are chapters by Richard Kieckhefer and Robert Mathiesen on the Sworn Book of Honorius, Michael Camille on the Ars Notoria, John B. Friedman on the Secretum Philosophorum, Nicholas Watson on the McMaster text, and Elizabeth Wade on Lullian divination. The work also includes Juris Lidaka's edition of the Liber de Angelis, and an overview of late medieval English ritual manuscripts by Frank Klaassen. This book will be invaluable for scholars and other readers interested in ritual magic in the later Middle Ages.

Texts and Traditions of Medieval Ritual Magic

Conjuring Spirits

Although when most people think of magic they think of demonic magic or necromancy, the nine chapters in this volume mainly examine texts of angelic magic, along with their connections to Christian mysticism and other traditions. Widely practiced in medieval Europe, ritual magic's intellectual legacy remains in such texts as the Ars Notoria, The Book of Angels, and the Secrets of the Philosophers. Topics discussed include: the Jewish influence on Christian magic, an art historian's perspective on the images of ritual practice, the relationship of astrology and magic, and comparative examinations of different texts. Paper edition (unseen), $19.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

John Gower

Siân Echard

This translation of Gower's work is fully annotated and is preceded by an ample introduction of the function of the verses in the Confessio itself.

An Annotated Translation

The Latin Verses in the Confessio Amantis

"A collection of essays examining medieval and early modern texts aimed at performing magic or receiving illumination via the mediation of angels. Includes discussion of Jewish, Christian and Muslim texts"--Provided by publisher.

Theurgic Ideas and Practices, Thirteenth to Sixteenth Centuries

Invoking Angels

In Rewriting Magic, Claire Fanger explores a fourteenth-century text called The Flowers of Heavenly Teaching. Written by a Benedictine monk named John of Morigny, the work all but disappeared from the historical record, and it is only now coming to light again in multiple versions and copies. While John's book largely comprises an extended set of prayers for gaining knowledge, The Flowers of Heavenly Teaching is unusual among prayer books of its time because it includes a visionary autobiography with intimate information about the book's inspiration and composition. Through the window of this record, we witness how John reconstructs and reconsecrates a condemned liturgy for knowledge acquisition: the ars notoria of Solomon. John's work was the subject of intense criticism and public scandal, and his book was burned as heretical in 1323. The trauma of these experiences left its imprint on the book, but in unexpected and sometimes baffling ways. Fanger decodes this imprint even as she relays the narrative of how she learned to understand it. In engaging prose, she explores the twin processes of knowledge acquisition in John's visionary autobiography and her own work of discovery as she reconstructed the background to his extraordinary book. Fanger's approach to her subject exemplifies innovative historical inquiry, research, and methodology. Part theology, part historical anthropology, part biblio-memoir, Rewriting Magic relates a story that will have deep implications for the study of medieval life, monasticism, prayer, magic, and religion.

Claire Fanger

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