Magic in Western Culture: From Antiquity to the Enlightenment
Cambridge University Press, 9/9/2015
EAN 9781107070523, ISBN10: 110707052X
Hardcover, 612 pages, 23.6 x 16.1 x 3.8 cm
Language: English
The story of the beliefs and practices called 'magic' starts in ancient Iran, Greece, and Rome, before entering its crucial Christian phase in the Middle Ages. Centering on the Renaissance and Marsilio Ficino - whose work on magic was the most influential account written in premodern times - this groundbreaking book treats magic as a classical tradition with foundations that were distinctly philosophical. Besides Ficino, the premodern story of magic also features Plotinus, Iamblichus, Proclus, Aquinas, Agrippa, Pomponazzi, Porta, Bruno, Campanella, Descartes, Boyle, Leibniz, and Newton, to name only a few of the prominent thinkers discussed in this book. Because pictures play a key role in the story of magic, this book is richly illustrated.
Part I. Introduction
1. The scruples of J. G. Frazer
2. Magic as a classical tradition and its philosophical foundations
Part II. Mageia
3. Ancient philosophy in Ficino's magic I
Plotinus
4. Ancient philosophy in Ficinio's magic II
Neoplatonism and the Chaldaean Oracles
5. Ancient philosophy in Ficino's magic III
Hermes and Proclus
6. Scholastic philosophy in Ficino's magic
7. Data
a tale of two fish
Part III. Hermetica
8. Hermes the theologian
9. Hermes domesticated
10. Hermes on parade
Part IV. Magic Revived and Rejected
11. How to do magic, and why
12. Nature, magic, and the art of picturing
13. The power of magic and the poverty of erudition
14. Disenchantment
Part V. Conclusion
15. Who killed Dabholkar?