Forbidden Rites
A Necromancer’s Manual of the Fifteenth Century
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Pennsylvania State University Press
Published:15th Sep '98
Should be back in stock very soon
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£62.95(9780271017501)
This book offers a critical edition of a medieval Latin text, Forbidden Rites, revealing the complexities of medieval magic practices.
Preserved in the Bavarian State Library in Munich, a manuscript has been largely overlooked by scholars, yet it holds significant value in the study of medieval magic. Forbidden Rites presents a critical edition of this medieval Latin text, complete with a comprehensive commentary. The book offers a detailed analysis of the text and its historical context, translating key sections and comparing it with other necromantic works from the late Middle Ages. This makes Forbidden Rites an accessible and engaging introduction to the world of medieval magic.
Unlike many medieval texts aimed at practitioners of magic, this handbook is more of a compilation than a structured treatise. What sets it apart is the breadth and diversity of its contents, which include prayers, conjurations, rituals of sympathetic magic, astral magic procedures, a spirit catalog, and extensive ceremonies for consecrating magical texts. This variety provides readers with a unique glimpse into the practices and beliefs of medieval magicians.
In terms of detail and scope, the manual surpasses the renowned thirteenth-century Picatrix and offers more variety than the Thesaurus Necromantiae, attributed to Roger Bacon. As a result, Forbidden Rites stands out as one of the most intriguing and significant manuscripts of medieval magic to have emerged in recent times.
“Forbidden Rites lays a solid foundation for future research on this topic and establishes a very high scholarly standard.”
—Frank Klaassen Canadian Journal of History
“Forbidden Rites, in illuminating the continuities between the orthodox and the illicit, greatly enriches our knowledge of this period in which necromancy flourished.”
—Jane E. Jenkins ISIS
“This book is enormously important. Building on his previous work, especially Magic in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1989), the author develops his formative insights into the subject of religion and magic in the late Middle Ages and also offers an edition of a truncated, therefore authorless and titleless, fifteenth-century manuscript (in Munich Clm 849) of a magical handbook.”
—Jeffrey Burton Russell Church History
“This book provides a vivid and detailed picture of medieval magical practice from the inside. With his edition of the Latin text and thorough analysis which accompanies it, Professor Kieckhefer has made accessible the aims, intents, and mentalities of the medieval necromancer.”
—Gillian Pritchard Medieval History
“Forbidden Rites opens a window onto aspects of late-medieval religion and culture that have often been hidden in the shadows. The material is fascinating, the arguments compelling. . . . All told, this is one of the most important works on late medieval magic from one of its most perceptive historians.”
—Rudolph Paul Almasy Sixteenth Century Journal
“I was captivated . . . by Forbidden Rites, part of an excellent series under the rubric Magic in History; with wonderful wit and succinct contextual insights, Richard Kieckhefer has edited a German wizard’s grimoire, packed with spells for Prospero-like conjurations of phantom banquets and castles in the air, as well as complicated charms, many involving hoopoes, against all manner of ills.”
—Marina Warner Times Literary Supplement
ISBN: 9780271017518
Dimensions: 235mm x 156mm x 29mm
Weight: 626g
392 pages