Magic in the Cloister

Sophie Page is a lecturer at University College London.

• ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsIntroduction1Monks and Their Magic Texts at St. Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury2Natural Magic: The Basilisk and the Lodestone3The Liber vaccae: Magical Uses of Monstrous Creations4Image Magic: Harnessing Power in the Harmonious Universe5The Liber de essentia spirituum: Magic, Revelation, and Fellowship with Spirits6The Ars notoria and Its Monastic AudienceEpilogueJohn Dee, St. Augustine’s Manuscripts, and Renaissance MagicAppendix 1Translation of the Glossulae super Librum imaginum lunaeAppendix 2Translation of the Liber de essentia spirituumNotesSelected BibliographyIndex

“In addition to exploring manuscripts and their contents in detail, Magic in the Cloister 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.”—Catherine Rider, University of Exeter