{"product_id":"magic-in-the-cloister-9780271060347","title":"Magic in the Cloister","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eUtilizes the collection of magic texts from the late Middle Ages at St. Augustine's, Canterbury, to examine the orthodoxy of magical approaches to the medieval universe and to show how it was possible to combine magical studies with a monastic vocation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“In addition to exploring manuscripts and their contents in detail, \u003ci\u003eMagic in the Cloister\u003c\/i\u003e is original in its focus on a known group of men who owned and read these books and perhaps tried out some of the rituals in them. This is unusual because many manuscripts of magical texts have been lost, or we do not know who owned them. The book therefore presents much new information about the readers of magical texts. It also approaches this issue from a new angle. Sophie Page shows that magical texts could appeal to people who were part of the religious establishment (monks in a wealthy monastery) and who had a monastic vocation.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e—Catherine Rider,University of Exeter\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003ci\u003eMagic in the Cloister\u003c\/i\u003e offers a fascinating picture of learned monks reading and even putting into practice magical texts that were kept in the library of their monastery. St. Augustine's, Canterbury, offered not only a haven for prayer but also a laboratory for occult activity.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e—Charles Burnett,The Warburg Institute, University of London—School of Advanced Study\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“There is something thrilling for the researcher about working in a library for the first time, familiarizing oneself with its contents, both their riches and their lacunae, figuring out its organizational principles, stumbling upon evidence of past users and important benefactors, and then by ever more extended use, discerning the patterns and trajectory of the library’s development over time. . . . As Sophie Page demonstrates in \u003ci\u003eMagic in the Cloister\u003c\/i\u003e, the thrill is not limited to a summer spent in a scrupulously maintained \u003ci\u003eFachbibliothek\u003c\/i\u003e at a twenty-first-century university institute, but can also be won through a more constructed visit to a library in the distant past.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“The library in question in \u003ci\u003eMagic in the Cloister\u003c\/i\u003e is the late-medieval library of the Abbey of St. Augustine in Canterbury, especially its collection of learned magic. . . . \u003ci\u003eMagic in the Cloister\u003c\/i\u003e is a stimulating work: its research is meticulous, its insights compelling, and its prose limpid. For this reviewer, the first visit to the library of St. Augustine’s was thrilling indeed.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e—David J. Collins, S.J. \u003ci\u003eCatholic Historical Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Page contextualizes licit and illicit forms of magic and the reasons for their classification in the medieval mind, focusing upon magical practice in the monastery. Each chapter is thoroughly researched enough to be of interest to the specialist in the field but also provides enough details regarding the texts and concepts in question to appeal to the non-specialist as well.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“. . . \u003ci\u003eMagic in the Cloister \u003c\/i\u003eis well worth the read, particularly for the academic audience who is coming to these texts for the first time.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e—Michael Heyes \u003ci\u003eNova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Sophie Page’s insightful and absorbing contribution to the study of Western learned magic brings together many strands that comprise ‘approaches to the medieval universe’ to focus on the place of magic within it; and in so doing, she demonstrates how the monks at St. Augustine’s were able to incorporate the study of magic into their traditionally Christian view of the world.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e—Elizabeth Wade-Sirabian \u003ci\u003ePreternature\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Page’s work marks a significant contribution to an emerging area of the study of the history of magic, one that has the potential to bridge a gap between what we know of magical texts, and what we can infer about magical readers and practitioners. As such, it has earned a welcome place in my own magical library at home.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e—Nancy Mandeville Caciola \u003ci\u003eRenaissance Quarterly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Engages from the start. . . . Delivers beautifully clear guidance through a complex and technical body of material.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e—Anne Lawrence-Mathers \u003ci\u003eSpeculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“An important contribution to the recent wave of scholarship on the history of European magic. . . . Page’s portrayal of monasteries as centres of magic puts us in a much better position to assess the complicated institutional context of ‘magical’ heteropraxy.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e—Egil Asprem \u003ci\u003ePomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“All histories have limits, but the core of this study is full of rich detail and judicious analysis. Page deftly illuminates not just the contents of a major library of medieval magic but also the intriguing intellectual and spiritual contexts in which it took shape.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e—Michael D. Bailey \u003ci\u003eAmerican Historical Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eContents\u003c\/strong\u003e\t\t\t\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eList of Illustrations\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAcknowledgments\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eList of Abbreviations\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e1\tMonks and Their Magic Texts at St. Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e2\tNatural Magic: The Basilisk and the Lodestone\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e3\tThe \u003ci\u003eLiber vaccae\u003c\/i\u003e: Magical Uses of Monstrous Creations\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e4\tImage Magic: Harnessing Power in the Harmonious Universe\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e5\tThe \u003ci\u003eLiber de essentia spirituum\u003c\/i\u003e: Magic, Revelation, and Fellowship with Spirits\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e6\tThe \u003ci\u003eArs notoria \u003c\/i\u003eand Its Monastic Audience\t\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEpilogue\tJohn Dee, St. Augustine’s Manuscripts, and Renaissance Magic\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAppendix 1\tTranslation of the \u003ci\u003eGlossulae super Librum imaginum lunae\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAppendix 2\tTranslation of the \u003ci\u003eLiber de essentia spirituum\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNotes\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSelected Bibliography\t\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIndex\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Pennsylvania State University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49400789762391,"sku":"9780271060347","price":32.36,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780271060347.jpg?v=1730471583","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/magic-in-the-cloister-9780271060347","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}