The Book of Magic: From Antiquity to the Enlightenment

by Brian P. Copenhaver (Editor/Translator)

'. . . as when iron is drawn to a magnet, camphor is sucked into hot air, crystal lights up in the Sun, sulfur and a volatile liquid are kindled by flame, an empty eggshell filled with dew is raised towards the Sun . . .'

This rich, fascinating anthology of the western magical tradition stretches from its roots in the wizardry of the Old Testament and the rituals of the ancient world, through writers such as Thomas Aquinas, John Milton, John Dee and Matthew Hopkins, and up to the tangled, arcane beginnings of the scientific revolution. Arranged historically, with commentary, this book includes incantations, charms, curses, Golems, demons and witches, as well as astrology, divination and alchemy, with some ancient and medieval works which were once viewed as too dangerous even to open.

Selected and translated with an introduction and notes by Brian Copenhaver

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Occult, Religion, Magic, Classics, Philosophy

704 pages, Paperback

First published March 8, 2016

About the author

Brian P. Copenhaver is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and History at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he directed the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, editor of History of Philosophy Quarterly, past president of the Journal of the History of Philosophy, and on the boards of Harvard’s I Tatti Renaissance Library and the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim and Getty foundations and has authored many books, including Hermetica, The Book of Magic, and Magic in Western Culture.

Reviews

[Jo Walton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best kind of primary source gathering, drawing together relevant bits of texts from all of Western history. Thoroughly recommended for anyone wanting to write fantasy or think about the place of magic in society, and think about the way people actually thought about magic in the real world. Copenhaver discusses the context, and gives you the source. Just great. I deliberately slowed down my reading of this because I didn't want it to be over. Also it's really thorough, there's not much I could see as missing except Lucian of Samosata. Highly recommended.

I would so much love books like this for sources from other cultures too!

[Brian Clegg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have always been fascinated by magic, whether in its use in fiction or beliefs about magic. As I read more popular science than anything (and because I was sent a review copy) I had got it into my head that this was a book on the practice of and attitude to magic from a scientific, analytical viewpoint - looking at what was believed and why they believed it. However, the actual book was very different from this, and I suspect it will only appeal to a very narrow readership.

What Brian Copenhaver does is to take a series of texts: biblical, medieval and renaissance (but no modern ones) that reference magic in some way and gives us a brief commentary on each (usually just one paragraph) before quoting the document in full. I am sure from a scholastic viewpoint this is useful and may even be important, but I really can't see why it is being published in a manner that implies it is for a general readership, because it certainly isn't.

So unless you have the patience and the interest to read a whole string of obscure and verbose medieval documents, it probably shouldn't be on your to-read list.

[Viktoria]

Copenhaver has put together a very decent anthology of source texts, concerning magic, starting from the Old Testament and ending with the Age of Enlightenment. I certainly wouldn't say this is an introductory book - some texts, like Picatrix, are really hard to get through, so more basic and not-so-basic knowledge on certain topics would definitely come in hand.

[max theodore]

i do not have time to read all of this but it's VERY fun. a collection of passages from antique literature all about magic, + a really good introduction about how magic is hard to define and how its definition has changed and warped throughout history. i'm biased because i met dr. copenhaver and he's awesome, but regardless, i think this is very cool and accessible even to people who don't have classics knowledge :]

[Katherine Liddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of excerpts from manuscripts that have referred to magic in western literature. It moves forward chronologically and each chapter has a theme that loosely bundles the texts together (e.g. magic in the Bible, astronomy, witchcraft...). The author provides an introduction before each chapter, and the odd excerpt will have its own introduction.

It's extremely impressive that Copenaver has condensed centuries of thought and writing about magic into a volume of this size. The breadth of his scholarship is clear in the way he links the texts thematically and sketches biographies of so many authors, texts and historical movements into such succinct narratives. He combines historical overview with interesting detail in a very fluid and elegant literary manner.

A side effect of this scholarship, though, is that the author is so steeped in his subject that he doesn't quite imagine how obscure the excerpts are to a reader coming to them for the first time.
Pop-culture references to South Pacific and Batman imply that he sort of wanted to make his work accessible to lay readers, but then he lapses into obscure academic digressions and allusions.

Like I said, his introductions provide some background information but it is rather detailed and annoying to have to plough through beautiful paragraphs when all you want to know is who the hell Lactantius and when he died.

Anyway, it's pretty interesting but I'd probably recommend you read it after already familiarizing yourself with the subject a little.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was kind of short for the subject matter, but deconstructed the magic vs. religion hermeneutic in a way that was long overdue, and he really showed the major springboard for the ideas of magic and the renaissance was the monasteries.
God Bless Brian Copenhaver, and all readers of this book.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This will be very useful as a bibliography in creating the occult library I've always envisioned myself owning.

[Richard Fletcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly interesting topic to follow across such a wide period of time. Gives real insight into the toil involved in the progression of knowledge and the general unhinged nature of humans as a species.

Downsides are that because it’s largely first hand sources so some of it is fairly inaccessible, certainly not light reading. But, the brief synopsis at the start of each passage does give you a solid leg up.

[Pedro Pascoe · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Books of Magic: From Antiquity to the Enlightenment. An anthology of exerpts from magical texts spanning the Western Magical Tradition.

Now that I have read this tome, I have surely levelled up my Wizard, and am ready to quest armed with the requisite number of spells to combat peril in the realm. Doctor Strange, eat your heart out!
Only, magic, as a serious tradition doesn't quite work like that. If you are looking for answers as to how that actually works out, this book may or may not be of any help to you. There, I'm sounding more like a Wizard already.

I'm not quite sure of the value of actually reading this book cover to cover, as I have just done, in bite-size pieces over a number of months. Does it give me a better perspective on the Western Magical Tradition? Yes and no. I think Copenhaver's companion piece (Magic in Western Culture: from Antiquity to the Enlightenment) would more likely provide an analysis on that. I can't say for sure, as I haven't read it, though it is now on my radar. To be sure, each excerpt is prefaced with a brief paragraph providing a bit of context and comment, which is helpful for the more obscure works presented in this anthology. This book serves as a smorgasboard on Western 'magical' texts throughout history with the briefest of signposts from a writer surely immersed in the topic. No flights of fancy from the editor here, these are the primary sources for magical writings throughout the ages, and not (for the most part) the romanticized flights of fancy that fictional authors have extrapolated from, largely, the Medieval and Rennaisance era of Magical Texts (if this reading is anything to go by).

With such a broad historical range, even within the confines of 'Western' magic, it is quite easy for the largely uninitiated, like myself, to get lost in the labyrinth of words that magical writings can appear as. And I have read a small number of books recommended in the 'further reading' section at the back of the book.

Copenhaver does not shy away from presenting texts that present the magic tradition in terms of traps for the gullible, or that mock the western magical tradition (particularly in the chapter "Magic Seen, Heard and Mocked"). Even these exerpts serve to illustrate a point in the greater scheme of things.

Impressions of the western magic tradition having read this book cover to cover? The western idea of magic has mutated over the centuries, but by and large rely upon asking the god or gods favours (or powers), or act as points of enquiry into the nature of the world, seeking to unveil the mysteries of the world, once referred to as natural philosophy, now mutated into science. That western ideas of magic are possibly a misunderstanding or re-interpretation of outside traditions of magic, particularly Middle Eastern traditions during the Middle Ages (which themselves were somewhat based on Ancient Greek traditions), and latter the Kabalah Jewish Tradition. And that magic's child, science, has de-mystified the cultural urge for inquiry. Even when modern science was just starting to de-couple itself from the tradition that arguably spawned it, it was still regarded in deeply 'magical' thinking. And that there really is a bucket load of words written about the topic, and it can take a rare mind to be able to sift the chaff from the wheat, to put it diplomatically.

So, after all this, am I any closer to understanding what Magic really is? Well, maybe I am. Maybe I'll pull the Rosicrucian line of 'I know something you don't know' without explanation or proof and pass it off as occult wisdom. Are you prepared to take the chance of eating a Fireball spell to find out? Are you feeling lucky?

[Ellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish there were a little bit more information on every excerpt. Like, where does it come from, who wrote it, why is it magical? I want a bit more of the author’s thoughts. Maybe some footnotes on what he makes of each line.

[Jerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Copenhaver is one of the leading voices in the field of academic research that brings the methods of cultural anthropology to bear on the subject of western "occult" traditions -- namely, magic, astrology, and alchemy. My first encounter with his work is his translation of the Hermetica, a collection of esoteric texts dating from the first centuries CE that emerged from the syncretic culture of Hellenistic Egypt and having connections to the gnostic texts of early Christianity. The painstaking scholarship that went into the Hermetica, with its comprehensive historical overview and its extensive textual notes and exegeses piqued my interest in his work on the history of magic.

This book is much broader in scope. It is something of an anthology of excerpts from original texts, much the spirit of the "portable series." By my count there are 174 chapters, each of which is devoted to a self-contained excerpt from an original source. The chapters are short. The excerpted texts range from two to no more than a dozen pages, and each is prefaced with a couple paragraphs from Copenhaver summarizing its historical context or expanding slightly upon its relevance in the overarching narrative that he has assembled. The choice of textual sources is vast and eclectic, though it is divided into broad sections roughly covering Old Testament sources, Christian gospels, Greco-Roman philosophy and literature, Neo-platonic philosophers of "late antiquity," early Christian Europe and the Middle Ages, Renaissance science and philosophy, Elizabethan literature, and the Age of Science. Each of the main sections is prefaced by an introductory chapter summarizing the major themes of "what magic meant" in the particular period or cultural context -- be it received with reverence or ridicule, with abhorrence or unassuming acceptance -- as well as the main facets of its cultural evolution during that period.

This is not a book to be read straight through from beginning to end, which is essentially what I tried to do. Nor is this a book that will appeal to everyone who seeks deeper acquaintance the the original texts. Many of the excerpts, particularly those from Neo-platonists and the Renaissance Italian philosophers, are frankly too brief to lend a sense a sense of their significance as it is explained in the discussions introducing those works. In any case the book is a reasonable jumping off point for further study, and the textual notes include extensive biographies for each of the major sections.

[Matthew Gurteen · Rating 2 out of 5]

In theory and from the blurb, this seems like an interesting collection of sources we might consider to fall under the banner of 'magical.' Unless you have an academic background, however, or an extensive interest in the subject, most of this book probably going to mean nothing to you.

I wish I had more to say about it, but there really is not much more to it than that. It is over 700 pages of mostly niche texts without context. Most of this is due to Brian Copenhaver, the book's editor and translator. He must not have written the blurb because that makes it seem like an approachable collection for the everyday reader. I think even the most well-read scholar would struggle with his prose, however. I want to believe I have a reasonable academic background, if not in magic generally, then certainly in the book's literature section, which deals with authors like Shakespeare, Jonson, and Milton. Even this chapter made little sense to me because it was overly complicated and poorly written.

On top of this, none of the illustrations are sourced, and to say it is annotated in any meaningful way is a lie. The only thing I found mildly informative about it was the suppression of Greek and Roman antiquity in the early Christian era, which is a personal interest. I honestly could not recommend this book to anyone. Try 'The Penguin Book of Witches' by Katherine Howe if you are looking for something similar in the same series. That book is much more readable and entertaining than whatever this was.

[Lewis Carnelian · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a great Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule comedy skit where the titular character "reviews" sushi and summarizes it as "cat scraps". It's tempting to summarize Copenhaver's selection here similarly in the most complementary way. Copenhaver's excerpts across time do very little to enlighten, but they do serve up particular vibes. And I can't imagine he expected to do much more.
The misdirection here is that this is no compendium of grimoires that "cunning folk" and treasure-hunters would employ, although is does dip into the alchemical. Rather, it displays a font of the philosophick magus, alongside numerous complaints of magicians and witches from such an illustrious motley including St. Augustine and Walter Scot. Its deepest well lies in the Renaissance material, which I believe might be Copenhaver's speciality. Here, bizarros like Ficino and Pico, and later Agrippa and Porta, come to life with their odd syntheses that display a non-normative thinking that begs comparison with such modern wizards like Félix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze. Again, these drippings don't provide much other than a glimpse of some of these overtly obtuse works, but that's not to say it wasn't a blast perusing!

[Joel Collier · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author uses a bad definition of magic to shoehorn in a lot material that’s really about discredited scientific theories or philosophy. I don’t know if it’s padding, or if the author really was befuddled enough to twist the normal meaning of the word to include vast tracks of discredited scientific theories, religious ceremonies, and bad philosophy.

The fundamental error is treating a magical practice as eo ipso magical without taking into account the context in which it happens. If Aleister Crowley attempts to sublimate lead into gold, he is attempting magic. If an ancient Greek is doing it, he is putting into practice a now discredited theory about nature. If someone today attempts to transmute wine into the blood of the god Pan, he is attempting magic. If a Catholic priest does that with the blood of Christ, he is administering the Eucharist.

I don’t know if I can define magic, but I do know if you want an anthology about what is commonly considered magical, you should stay away from this book.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a history of the philosophy of magic through textual sources. There’s virtually no discussion of folk magic, and very few examples of actual spells. Most of the sources discuss the nature of magic from an academic perspective. It’s still very interesting reading, especially if philosophy or academic magic interests you, but less useful if you’re looking for examples of actual magical practices.

Another drawback is that the commentary often amounts to nothing more than a summary of what’s in the text rather than providing an analysis or a discussion of context. Some of the texts are difficult to understand so it would’ve been useful to have more secondary commentary about the texts themselves. The book is very long and some of the texts are repetitive; it would have been easy to cut some to make room for more analysis.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

A sly, but not very subtle, Cultural Marxist reading of magic littered with jibes at modernity, science, people of European descent, and inheritors of the European tradition.

Little more than an anthology introduced and interpreted by Copenhaver, where the cultural marxism inserts itself, this book is written for white progressives who love to hate themselves and the society that has been so good to them. Marginalized groups may find it useful to hate on whitey but the road to civilizational collapse is paved by intellectuals such as Copenhaver.

This book can be given a miss with no loss to any seeking meaning in magic or those still proud of their civilizational inheritance.

Waste of time and energy except for budding Cultural Marxists.

[Andrew Nease · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now, don't get me wrong: I wasn't expecting to read this and become a wizard or anything, but I do feel like it could have spent more time talking about genuine arcane texts rather than things that the author considered magic-adjacent. If you eliminated everything from this book that isn't a religious text that isn't actually talking about magic, a work of mythology or fiction that only tells you what the culture that produced it THOUGHT about magic, unpleasant witch-mania propaganda that completely unconnected to any genuine magical tradition (the entire Malleus Malificarum can die in darkness, as far as I'm concerned), or whatever the fuck that stupid anti-anti-Semitic Jesus vs. Judas pissing contest thing was, I swear this would be two hundred pages shorter.

But, when you actually DO come across something that some astrologer or alchemist or weird philosopher wrote, it's kind of fun, and an interesting resource for someone who, like me, might be looking for something to use for a fantasy WIP. And the not-really-magic stuff can be interesting or fun. Even the pissing contest thing... is definitely a thing that someone wrote. So, it's only losing one star, and I'd say give it a try if you're curious.

[Gabriella · Rating 4 out of 5]

This wide-ranging primary sourcebook contains so many fascinating entries. It's interesting to see which strands of magical belief have continued into modern times, infusing into popular culture and literature (and some self-help books...).

I'd recommend this to anyone who is drawn to the history of belief and magic, especially what has constituted "magic" over the millennia, and its complex relationship with religion. I love seeing how these ideas have echoed down the ages and influence our current patterns of thinking, often without our knowledge.

[Meghan]

Very comprehensive anthology of writings on magic and the occult in Western culture. My biggest complaint is that the selections are heavily ellipsized, which makes already archaic language even more jarring to read. On the other hand, the author was covering a lot of ground and had to make some difficult editorial decisions. Overall I found the book both instructive and at times surprisingly humourous. Reading Leibniz take a swipe at Newton by calling his concept of gravitational force a "scholastick occult quality" was a great finish!

[Pearl · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible anthology about magic/occult traditions and the cosmic struggle between good vs evil/light vs darkness in Western literature. The book is full of solar/lunar/stellar magic, including “dangerous” source texts that range from early Christian Europe to earlier and later Renaissance and finally the Age of Enlightenment (the Age of Science). Each text starts with a headnote and some are quite scary and will leave you speechless. I will read it again.

[Mitchell Stern · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not everything in here is necessarily a page turner and it doesn’t go in too much depth about any one strain of magical thought. However, it earns its five stars through its sheer breadth and use of sources not always acknowledged in occultism or histories of magic. It helps contextual use the history of magic warts and all (it makes VERY clear how much medieval Christian magic involved heavy doses of anti-Semitism for instance).

[Edoardo Albert · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Book of Magic is a masterpiece of scholarship. The editor, Brian Copenhaver, selects texts, from antiquity to the Enlightenment, demonstrating how the idea of magic changed through the centuries. Each section begins with a short introduction on the author but the scholarship is best demonstrated in the copious footnotes, that provide a running, explicatory and illuminating commentry to each original text. A demonstration of how scholarship can shine light on the past.

[Mel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the Penguin book of the undead, but this one is pretty heavy going.
Lots of excerpts from texts about magic, with ideas often repeated on different excerpts.
The authors of the texts are sometimes charlatans, sometimes not in touch with reality, but it felt like a lot of work on magic was a misguided form of science.
I love the text on summoning spirits with a hoopoe bird though.

[Arvilla]

This is a very Interesting and informative anthology, tracking the development of magic and magical thought from ancient times up to the Enlightenment. It's definitely magic though--once I got to 300AD it was consistently charming me to sleep! Not due to any fault of it's own, I'm sure. But I'll be putting this back on the shelf to maybe finish later.

[Anne Lydolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quite academic collection of texts from many different time periods. Not exactly what I was expecting but a good overview of magic throughout history. Quite a heavy read, better done in small bits at a time.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF. not that i didn’t like it! very interesting stuff, there was just a lot of it for me. and the middle parts of the book, the biblical/christian moralist stuff, was enough of a slog for me that i’m putting it down. i may revisit as inspiration later, picking bits and pieces to read or reread.

[Ellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wished the author would add more information on an excerpt before we read it. Why is the excerpt magical, what makes it so?

[Eliza · Rating 3 out of 5]

Expected a history of magic rather than a brief explanation of different epochs followed by biblical and literary examples. Ok for dipping in to.

[Vincent Konrad · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid collection of excerpts, and excellent reference for original texts

[Morris Yen · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting collection of texts related to the generic notion of magic
Pretty readable, and the introductory texts are good companion