IN THE Middle Ages, alongside the study of science, which tried to explain the workings of the universe, was a more dubious branch of learning which we call magic. This had a different goal: to harness creation’s unseen forces and use them for human advantage. People, then as now, wanted to know the future. They also wished to have victory in love and war, to discover buried treasure, and to hurt their enemies. Magic promised to give them their desires.
It claimed to have esoteric knowledge from the Chaldeans, the Jews (especially Solomon), the classical world, and the Arabs. This could be studied and applied by an elite of learned men. They used a wide range of methods, including casting lots, mysterious alphabets, onomancy (analysing name spellings), palmistry, and geomancy (the interpretation of random dots on paper). Then there were spells and attempts to command unearthly powers, even those of the angels.
Magic sat uneasily alongside religion. Everyone agreed that the planets and stars exerted an influence on the world. The study of astrology was necessary in medicine, for example, to explain people’s physiology, to prescribe appropriate treatments, and to administer these at suitable times. It could also be used to predict the weather and to establish the calendar: so important for the Church.
Divining the future, however, went beyond the bounds laid down by God for mankind. Magical practices that aimed to identify and exploit supernatural power, especially demonic power, were sinful. Augustine and Aquinas condemned them as foolish and wrong. Some kings threatened magicians with fines, outlawry, and even executions.
None the less, magic was resorted to in every level of society, including the highest. Charlemagne, Alfonso of Castile, Charles V of France, Henry III of England, and Richard II all collected magical books or employed astrologers. One of the many insights of this book is the place of magic in royal courts. Sometimes it came close to seeming a scientific subject, at other times it descended into witchcraft. When the bishop of Cahors tried to use it to kill Pope John XXII, and the duchess of Gloucester tried to use it to predict the death of Henry VI, they came to sticky ends. She died in prison; he was degraded and burnt.
Lawrence-Mathers explains all these aspects of magic in a simple and comprehensive way. Her study focuses on 20 surviving manuscripts and on what they reveal of magic’s medieval features. The survivors are luxury volumes illustrated at great expense. More than 60 pictures are reproduced in what is a handsome volume, although some images would have benefited from enlargement or reduction to a detail to be fully appreciated. Those who paid for the texts got their money’s worth in beauty. Whether they got much else is open to doubt.
Dr Nicholas Orme is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Exeter.
The Magic Books: A history of enchantment in 20 medieval manuscripts
Anne Lawrence-Mathers
Yale University Press £30
(978-0-300-24443-4)
Church Times Bookshop £27