Christian Demonology and Popular Mythology

Demons in Krakow, and Image Magic in a Magical Handbook

DEMONS IN KrAKOw, AND IMAGE MAGIC IN A MAGICAL hANDBOOK BENEDEK LÁNG Qui celum et terram creavit, quibusdam creaturis super alias creaturas potestatem donavit.1 Introduction The curious genre of medieval magical handbooks has been researched for many decades. already lynn Thorndike, in his famous History of Magic and Experimental Science, gave a typology and an exhaustive description of magical practices, including the relatively innocent methods connected with the secrets of the natural world, and the explicitly demonic or angelic procedures. although Thorndike gave a thorough characterization of the sources, read and listed the most important Western manuscripts, it is still possible to go deeper into the topic, the field is left open for further investigations. today magical handbooks are again the focus of scholarly interest. The last decades have provided us with studies and books on medieval practical magic by richard Kieckhefer (Kieckhefer 1989, 1994), who has even published one representative piece of the genre of ritual magic (Kieckhefer 1997). established by himself, Claire Fanger, and robert mathiesen in 1995, the Societas Magica focuses on the study of medieval , antique and early modern magic, including the sociology of magic , magical practices and theories of magic. as a fruit of these investigations a collection of studies was published, edited by Claire Fanger (Fanger 1998) that—far from limiting its interest to the field promised in the title (that is, ritual magic)—includes basic papers on non-demonic magical texts as well. moving from West to east on the map of scholarship, we can mention the works of Charles burnett2 (Warburg institute) and David Pingree (burnett – Pingree 1997; Pingree 1986, 1987, 1994). The real- 14 CHRISTIAN DEMONOLOGy AND POPULAR MyTHOLOGy ization of the editorial plans of brepols on medieval hermetism (Hermes Latinus), directed by Paolo lucentini, will also be of great help, when, together with the books already published, it will cover all the basic texts of hermetic magic. two more basic works, two recently finished and not yet published doctoral dissertations deserve mention here: sophie Page’s work on codices of magical content in the library of st. augustine at Canterbury (Page 2000), and Frank Klaassen’s overview on magical manuscripts of british origin (Klaassen 1999). as a result of these and many other scholarly enterprises—which would require too much time to list completely—this field of study is certainly not neglected or forgotten in the tradition of Western history of science and anthropology. however exhaustive these works may be, the topic itself is far from exhausted. as for our narrower geographical context, namely Central europe, virtually no systematic studies have been devoted to this question (for two exceptions, see Kowalczykówna 1979 and zathey 1972). in this paper i aim at giving a short classification of magic first, then i shall raise some questions not yet sufficiently answered, and finally i would like to show one Central european (namely: Polish) handbook. The examination of this manuscript will not enable me to answer definitively any of the questions raised, but i will be able to demonstrate at least how our own Central european sources can provide research strategies, and how they supply new details even to Western scholars. Furthermore, as far as we—native Central europeans—are concerned, it is not without interest to what extent the tendency of conjuring demons and angels was present in our countries. Demons in and around Handbooks: the Notion of Magic The history of handbooks containing magical practices is not closely related either to the evolution of archaic witchcraft beliefs, or to the domain of politically motivated courtly accusations. it is far from being a “popular” phenomenon, nor is it a subclass or precedent of the intellectual magic of medieval neoplatonism. although it is connected to the tolerated and encouraged astrological and astronomical research which was carried out in courtly and university contexts, it has its own history. 15 Demons in KraKoW, anD image magiC in a magiCal hanDbooK as a result of the necromantic or divinatory content of such books, they have never been officially tolerated (as opposed to astrology that could be practiced, taught and studied at universities, for example in bologna, in montpellier and in Krakow). They belong to the field of learned magic, which presupposes written culture (obviously, since we are speaking about books), though they may inherit some elements of oral tradition as well. The actors of this story are not illiterate midwives, living in...