Forbidden Rites. A Necromancer's Manual of the Fifteenth Century; Magic in History series
University Park PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2014. Sixth Printing. Softcover. Large octavo. viii + 384pp. B&w facsimile illustrations and diagrams, bibliography, index. The most recent edition of this significant work on mediaeval magic, focusing on a little-known handbook from the late Middle Ages in the collection of the Bavarian State Library in Munich. "Forbidden Rites consists of an edition of this medieval Latin text with a full commentary, including detailed analysis of the text and its contents, discussion of the historical context, translation of representative sections of the text, and comparison with other necromantic texts of the late Middle Ages. Like many medieval texts for the use of magicians, it is a miscellany rather than a systematic treatise. It is exceptional, however, in the scope and variety of its contents - prayers and conjurations, rituals of sympathetic magic, procedures involving astral magic, a catalogue of spirits, lengthy ceremonies for consecrating a book of magic, and other materials.... With more detail on particular experiments than the famous thirteenth-century Picatrix and more variety than the Thesaurus Necromatiae ascribed to Roger Bacon, the manual is one of the most interesting and important manuscripts of medieval magic that has yet come to light." Just a hint of shelf wear otherwise appears "as new". Near fine condition. Item #69402
ISBN: 9780271017518
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