It is a commonplace formulation that the topic of magic overlaps considerably with religion and science. In a more strictly medieval formulation, magic might be said to overlap with miracles and (natural) wonders, which yields a nice alliteration when one is working in Latin. Indeed, this volume takes as its point of departure Jacques Le Goff’s statement (in his The Medieval Imagination) that “supernatural phenomena” in medieval Europe could be divided into mirabilis, magicus, and miraculosus (1). The main premise of this volume, which emerged from a series of papers at the International Medieval Congress at Leeds, is that the boundaries between these categories were fluid and uncertain. Ultimately, it is not so concerned about boundaries between the magical and the miraculous as it is about those between magic and “science and the natural world,” although religion is never far out of the picture, since the opinions of educated clergy shape most of the boundaries that were articulated in almost any area.
I doubt that scholars of medieval magic will be much surprised by these assertions of uncertainty, as they are used to the capacious and often ill-defined nature of the topic they study. The idea that medieval magic was a “crossroads” where multiple areas of thought and practice intermingled has been axiomatic ever since Richard Kieckhefer first articulated the notion in his Magic in the Middle Ages (1989). Possibly those coming from the history of science will be more surprised to encounter overlaps between topics they study and forms of practice that could be called magical. Certainly, this volume contributes usefully by drawing attention to numerous forms of overlap and interconnection.
While the essays gathered here range widely, the area of overlap most frequently addressed in the volume is between astronomy/astrology and medicine. Medieval cosmology commonly held that astral bodies radiated energies that exerted considerable effects on earth. To use the position of the stars to predict specific events, and certainly specific human behaviors, was illicit, but knowing the general effect astral energies had on earth was permissible and could prove vital in many ways. Such energies were thought to affect the human body, especially the Galenic humors, so knowing where the stars stood was essential to many medical diagnoses and treatments. Several chapters address the connection between knowledge of the stars and medical practice, either in whole or as part of their larger analysis.
Other chapters expand on this core connection. In one of the most sweeping, Anne Lawrence-Mathers considers the essential question of whether astrology was “science or divination.” To sharpen her focus, she concentrates not on astro-medicine but on “astro-meteorology,” that is, the use of astrology to predict the weather, since astral energies were thought to affect the atmosphere. Flipping this connection, Janet Walls presents an interesting chapter on “brontology,” that is, taking thunder as an atmospheric condition affected by astral energies that could then be used as a divinatory device, often for medical purposes.
Other forms of quasi-magical medicine are covered as well, for example, the common use, in medicinal treatments, of natural items (herbs, plants, stones, animal parts) thought to have occult properties that could only be unlocked at certain times or under certain conditions, for which astral knowledge often again came into play. Sebastià Giralt addresses the most fundamental distinction for authorities at the time, namely, the boundary between “natural magic and necromancy,” that is, demonic invocation.
Surprisingly, one of the most recent trends in the history of medieval magic, the study of positive astral magic or angel magic, which complicated the perceived boundaries between demonic invocation and other forms of putatively natural magic considerably, is not a major focus in this volume, although important medieval texts, like Picatrix, and seminal modern studies, like those of Claire Fanger, are cited. In general, however, the breadth of coverage among the chapters is admirable. The volume is also solidly interdisciplinary, with several chapters focusing on literature; for example, the depiction of magic in the late-medieval Prose Merlin, by Victoria Flood, and Zachary Matus’s examination of several alchemical poems from late-medieval England.
For those looking for analysis of change over time, many of the chapters adopt the broadest chronological framework possible within the boundaries of the Middle Ages, tracing treatment of their particular topics from early Christianity (often Augustine) to the scholastics and beyond. When a distinct historical shift is discerned, it usually has to do with the influx of new knowledge from the Islamicate world in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Some chapters also focus specifically on the late-medieval period, noting a general intensification of concerns and suspicions about any kind of putatively magical activity in a world that was about to embark upon witch-hunting. These are not, however, defining features of the volume as a whole.
What does define this volume is a rich variety of topically focused chapters that all serve to illustrate the convoluted and frequently contested boundaries between magic and the natural world. In this, the volume absolutely succeeds in demonstrating the proposition with which it began.