Magic in the modern world. Strategies of repression and legitimization. Edited by Edward Bever and Randall Styers. (The Magic in History Series.) Pp. vi + 208. University Park, Pa: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2017. $74.95. 978 0 271 07777 2

2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 656-657
Author(s):  
William Pooley
Mediaevistik ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 530-532
Author(s):  
Albrecht Classen

Ordinary readers would welcome this new translation as one of many publications rendering a medieval Latin into modern English. All those efforts are certainly most welcome and necessary to maintain the scholarly and pragmatic-didactic approach to Medieval Studies. However, the Picatrix represents a unique magical treatise which every European pre-modern magician consulted and which enjoyed greatest respect for its universal relevance. Many contributors to the edited volume Magic and Magicians in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Time, ed. by Albrecht Classen (2018) refer to the Picatrix, acknowledging it as a most important source for magic throughout the entire pre-modern world.


Mediaevistik ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 417-418
Author(s):  
Albrecht Classen

Memory Studies matter greatly, especially in conjunction with war. The modern world knows, unfortunately, just too much about the need to remember wars and the victims, but this was also the case in the thirteenth century when public reflections on the past crusades began to assume center position, especially in light of the fifth crusade, which is the topic of Megan Cassidy-Welch’s new monograph, which continues several other projects of a very similar nature. In fact, it seems that she drew heavily from some of her previous publications for this study, although this is not clearly indicated. Although she focuses primarily on a medieval phenomenon, her study allows us to reach many highly valuable conclusions for our own world because war and death have always tortured human life.


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