The Transformations of Magic: Illicit Learned Magic in the Later Middle Ages and Renaissance

Magic in History

by Frank Klaassen

In this original, provocative, well-reasoned, and thoroughly documented book, Frank Klaassen proposes that two principal genres of illicit learned magic occur in late medieval image magic, which could be interpreted and justified in scholastic terms, and ritual magic (in its extreme form, overt necromancy), which could not. Image magic tended to be recopied faithfully; ritual magic tended to be adapted and reworked. These two forms of magic did not usually become intermingled in the manuscripts, but were presented separately. While image magic was often copied in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, The Transformations of Magic demonstrates that interest in it as an independent genre declined precipitously around 1500. Instead, what persisted was the other, more problematic form of ritual magic. Klaassen shows that texts of medieval ritual magic were cherished in the sixteenth century, and writers of new magical treatises, such as Agrippa von Nettesheim and John Dee, were far more deeply indebted to medieval tradition―and specifically to the medieval tradition of ritual magic―than previous scholars have thought them to be.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Occult, Religion, Esoterica

280 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2012

Reviews

[Jo Walton]

Read as research, very useful. Very academic in style and therefore a bit of a slog to read, but well worth it if you are interested. And I would never in a million years have written this poem without Klaasen's mention of John Argentine and his fine Italian hand https://www.patreon.com/posts/fine-it...

[Joseph F. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have liked to give this title 4 stars, but some parts were very tedious. It is not really the author's fault: this is a scholarly treatise on magic texts found in manuscripts. So there are large sections devoted to analyzing obscure manuscripts with Latin names and why certain texts are found with other texts. Bleh! (Unless that's your cup of tea.) But the sections where he discusses magic itself I found interesting. There are two main types of magic discussed: astral image magic and ritual magic, sometimes called necromancy.
It is especially in the discussions of ritual magic and what it meant to such occultists as Agrippa and Ficino that this book really shines.