Resumo de Magic In The Middle Ages

In Magic in the Middle Ages Kieckhefer has produced
an insightful account of magic as a kind of crossroads where different pathways
in medieval culture converge. His approach is fairly tightly focused on the
sources; he starts by looking at two from fifteenth century Germany, an
estate management handbook in the vernacular that contains scattered magical
elements and a Latin handbook for conjuring demons. In defining magic he
eschews modern anthropological frameworks such as the coercion/supplication
typology, instead using the term for those phenomena which
intellectuals would have recognized as either demonic or natural magic ? while recognizing
that distinguishing between natural and demonic forms of magic was not easy...
The history of medieval magic is essentially one of conflicting perceptions on
just this issue.

Kieckhefer devotes two chapters to the sources for medieval magic. The first
surveys magic in Greek and Roman philosophy, science, and fiction, and in early
Christian writings (and in late antiquity as Christianity became an established
religion). One significant contribution was the association of magic with
women; another was the persistent strand of Christian thought that considered
all magic demonic (in contrast to widespread classical sentiment that magic was
bad only when used to evil ends, or when it posed a threat to the social
order). Turning to Germanic and Celtic influences, Kieckhefer doesn''t downplay
the difficulties of using later Christian sources, but he looks at a range of
sources: early Christian penitentials, runic inscriptions, Icelandic sagas and
poetry, and Irish literature.

Recognizing that much of the magic in medieval Europe
was distributed widely, and that it was not limited to any specific group,
Kieckhefer surveys what he calls the common tradition of medieval magic. Magic
had strong connections with healing, at all levels (from midwives to
physicians), and the preparation of medicines often involved taboos, sympathetic
magic, and attention to heavenly bodies. Charms (prayers, blessings, and
exorcisms) were considered magic by some, though most probably worried about
whether rather than how they worked. Amulets and talismans were natural magic;
even if they were holy objects used improperly that was usually considered
superstition rather than demonic magic. Sorcery was the use of any of these,
and particularly of healing magic, for evil ends. Divination and popular
astrology were also part of the tradition, as was performative magic that used
trickery and sleight of hand for entertainment.

Three chapters then look at more specialized aspects of magic. Here courtly
culture was not so different to broader society: it is misleading to portray
the situation at court as different in principle from that elsewhere. There
were rivalries and animosities in all walks of life that led to the use and
suspicion of magic. But of course the more expensive forms of magic were
specific to courts: automations and mechanical wonders and magical gems and
lapidary handbooks. Many rulers also had official astrologers and diviners, and
more about courtly magic survives in written sources. The courtly romances are
particularly useful: unhelpful as sources for events, but invaluable as guides
to attitudes and values.

Another strand in medieval magic was associated with the growth of
universities and the importation of Arabic learning. Kieckhefer gives a nice
account of the practice and principles of astrology, and the debates over its
claims. Much astrology was entirely non-controversial ? the belief that the
stars have influence on earthly persons and objects in ways that are not
manifest was common to Aquinas and Aristotle ? but at the other extreme there
was astral magic. Kieckhefer also covers alchemy (looking at the fifteenth
century English alchemist Thomas Norton), the cult of secrecy and books of
secrets, and Hermes Tsmegistus and the Kabbalah (associated with the Humanist
scholars such as Marcilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola).

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