During the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries a group of monks with occult interests donated what became a remarkable collection of more than thirty magic texts to the library of the Benedictine abbey of St. Augustine's in Canterbury. The monks collected texts that provided positive justifications for the practice of magic and books in which works of magic were copied side by side with works of more licit genres. In Magic in the Cloister; Sophie Page uses this collection to explore the gradual shift toward more positive attitudes to magical texts and ideas in medieval Europe. She examines what attracted monks to magic texts; works; and how they combined magic with their intellectual interests and monastic life. By showing how it was possible for religious insiders to integrate magical studies with their orthodox worldview; Magic in the Cloister contributes to a broader understanding of the role of magical texts and ideas and their acceptance in the late Middle Ages.
#2829273 in Books 2000-10-19Ingredients: Example IngredientsOriginal language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.00 x .66 x 6.00l; 1.20 #File Name: 0271020628232 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Not Your Grade School Textbook on the American RevolutionBy Theodore R. SpicklerI bought this book as a genealogy tool since one of the leading "characters" is in my direct family tree. I ended up fascinated by the many unexpected insights gained about the revolution in general. The author has an impressive and detailed set of footnotes that suggest he must have lived in libraries for years to accumulate so many arcane bits of historical knowledge. The organization of the book is unusual in that each chapter focuses on a different person or persons. This has the effect of repeating many episodes in the history of the county but from varying view points. My grade school education set me up to regard any Tory as a reprehensible piece of British garbage but now I see a broader perspective in that some of the inhabitants had a reasonable desire to protect their means of livelihood. I only wished for a few more historical maps to help me judge the locations referenced in more detail. This is so much more than just a specific history of one county and offers the reader many surprising ways to look at the motivations and actions of everyone from the simplest farmer to framers of the new Pennsylvania state government. It's hard not to be changed through the perspectives gained from this book. the author writes in an entertaining and informed manner. Highly recommended!0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. easily read and highly insightfulBy L. AldersonSuperbly presented first-person accounts; easily read and highly insightful. Everything you want in a history. I happened to be reading this at the same time I was reading Washington's Spies; whose events occurred nearly at the same time. They expanded my narrow view of those times greatly. Thanks to Francis Fox for sharing what our forefathers and foremothers actually thought whilst they were being asked to risk all on an invention called democracy.3 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Context and PerspectiveBy Bob SmalserWhile the book is a treasury of the small details of frontier life not found elsewhere; its reliance on the perspective of individual; first-person correspondence ignores other archived accounts that may provide a more accurate picture of the events portrayed.For example; in Chapter 4 Henri Geiger accuses militia Captain Jacob Wetterholt of murdering a Moravian Indian family in a letter to the local magistrate; and author Fox accepts Geiger's version at face value. A small amount of additional research will find two other; more-detailed accounts of this incident; and (more importantly) its context; from less biased sources reaching entirely different conclusions. The result is the Fox narrative is extremely distorted; with Jacob Wetterholt confused with his brother Nicholas Wetterholt; the assignment of a theft motive omitted from the two other accounts entirely; and the omission of more probable villains in the form of Nicholas Wetterholt's lieutenant and an unscrupulous innkeeper.Hence if Fox got this much wrong about an incident I'm familiar with; how much else is wrong with his accounts of the incidents I'm not?
